Game of Thrones Season 7: Did Nikolaj Coster-Waldau Just Debunk a Theory?

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau keeps dropping tantalizing hints about Game of Thrones season 7, but did he just inadvertently hint that something won’t happen?

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has continued doing press on Small Crimes, a Netflix film that just went live on the streaming service. However, Mashable did ask him about his role as Jaime Lannister on Game of Thrones. Well, more specifically, they asked him about the Iron Throne. Previously, Coster-Waldau had said that he wasn’t sure how he felt about Cersei, Daenerys, or Jon’s winning the Iron Throne.

He told Mashable that he didn’t “see a peaceful transition of power happening” upon the arrival of Daenerys Targaryen to the Seven Kingdoms. Before you cry foul and say that he should certainly know whether or not Daenerys is peaceful when she arrives, he does contextualize by effectively saying he’s talking from the perspective of someone who doesn’t know what’s going to happen in season 7.

That’d be the fans, even those who have kept an eye on the filming spoilers that surfaced all winter and into the spring. Considering the fleet of ships she sailed with, “peaceful” is not a way to characterize her plans for Westeros. The dragons certainly don’t hurt matters either.

So if the transition of power is not peaceful, what does that mean for Cersei, the current occupant of the Throne? We’ll just leave this here, with the note that Coster-Waldau is speaking from his understanding of Jaime’s perspective:

"“I think he cares about it not being someone that the Lannisters can’t control […] I think [Jaime] understands there’s no question that if they lose the crown, obviously they’re probably going to lose their heads.”"

Ergo, Jaime killing Cersei, as many have speculated, simply may not happen. Coster-Waldau himself seemed to confirm as late as last week per Winter is Coming, though. However, if Jaime as a character worries that if Cersei is no longer the queen, then they’re going to die, then his killing her randomly doesn’t make sense.

To parse out his first sentence a little more, he’s saying that Jaime wants the Lannisters to be able to control person on the throne. The double negative may make it seem otherwise. At this point, Jaime and Cersei have run out of children. That severely limits the list of “people the Lannisters can control.” (Indeed, Cersei had issues with a growing Joffrey and Tommen during their respective reigns anyway. Jaime didn’t do so well taking Myrcella away from Dorne, either.) Could someone like Daenerys qualify as controllable, considering her ties to Tyrion? Well, probably not. The bonds between the three Lannister siblings are pretty emphatically broken by now.

Who knows? It seems that Jaime may simply try and make the best of a bad situation by sticking with his sister. That leaves Cersei’s fate up in the air. Betting on her to survive the series seems unwise at this point to say the least, though.

Next: Ed Sheeran Clarifies His Game of Thrones Cameo

Game of Thrones season 7 is just about two and a half months away. It has a premiere date of July 16.