Ed Sheeran's 'Game of Thrones' character was (probably) not burned alive in that big battle scene, alas
It was the cameo that rose to kill-it-with-fire levels of unpopular: Ed Sheeran's brief turn as "Lannister soldier" in "Dragonstone," Episode 1 of this, the seventh season of Game of Thrones.
Being whiplashed out of a fantasy trance by that ginger mop and boyish tenor was more than some folks could take. Even we called it "silly AF" and anger-inducing.
So when things got a little ... hot ... this week during "The Spoils of War," you could forgive us for imagining that "Lannister soldier" had been called down to help guard the wagon train of treasure heading to King's Landing.
Now, of course Sheeran wasn't one of the 20 stunt men who set a record for a show setting people on fire -- but why couldn't one of them be playing Sheeran's "Lannister soldier"?
There are at least a dozen guys here who could be him. There, that guy on the right, the one who waves his arm as if to say "Oh to hell with all this, I have a music career"?
If you'll recall, Sheeran's character was traveling with a small band of Lannister lads sent to the Riverlands as part of a peacekeeping army sent north after some "trouble with the Freys." There's no reason to think that detachment wouldn't be ordered back down to Highgarden to help guard the loot train, right?
Ooo, ooo, what if he was one of the guys holding the line when Drogon makes his first pass through the Lannister line? Kablooey!
Alas, Sheeran-cameo haters, we asked the one guy who could tell us definitively whether the Copper Top was at the battle, Matt Shakman, who directed "The Spoils of War."
And his answer wasn't promising.
"I did not meet Ed Sheeran," he said. "The idea behind the question is an interesting one and I think the earlier scene that was so great with Arya meeting those Lannister soldiers, where we humanize what those Lannisters are like, that they’re generous with her, only helps this sequence because it helps you feel for the men who are shaking in terror as their death is upon them."
Ahh, justifying that Sheeran cameo are we? Sure, the scene probably made us feel for these guys a little, but there's no justifying that clunky line where Arya remarks that she doesn't recognize the song he's singing and Sheeran says "it's a new one!"
But it also doesn't totally deny that Sheeran's "Lannister soldier" is fighting at The Reach, now does it? What say you, Shakman?
"I don’t think literally those soldiers were there," he told us.
Aw, really?
WAIT -- he said he doesn't think they were. That means he doesn't know.
The dream is alive! Sheeran's "Lannister soldier" would totally be one of these chumps guiding the supply wagons, right?
What we're saying is: There's a chance.
Anyone else see the resemblance?
Ashes to ashes, "Lannister soldier." Dust to dust.
Topics Game Of Thrones HBO Celebrities
Josh Dickey is Mashable's Entertainment Editor, leading Mashable's TV, music, gaming and sports reporters as well as writing movie features and reviews.Josh has been the Film Editor at Variety, Entertainment Editor at The Associated Press and Managing Editor at TheWrap.com.A finalist for the Los Angeles Press Club's Best Entertainment Feature in 2015 for "Everyone is Altered: The Secret Hollywood Procedure that Fooled Us for Years," Josh received his BA in Journalism from The University of Minnesota.In between screenings, he can be found skating longboards, shredding guitar and wandering the streets of his beloved downtown Los Angeles.
