14 DAY TRIAL // With season 3 of “Game of Thrones,” fans had to wait almost until the end to receive the shock of a lifetime with the Red Wedding. Season 4 premiered 2 Sundays ago and, with its second episode, it’s already delivered one unexpected blow to fans at home.
However, Alex Graves, who directed the episode, would like to assure fans that none of that was gratuitous. Neither should it be perceived as an end, even if that means viewers will have to get accustomed to the idea of never seeing one of the leading characters again.
*This article contains major spoilers. Fans who have not seen episode 2 from season 4 are encouraged not to read any further or, if they do, to bear in mind this stern warning.*
One of the leading characters is killed off in the Purple Wedding episode, “The Lion and the Rose,” and, though he’s one of the most annoying fictional boys ever to annoy us with his presence, his passing does come as a shock. Indeed, we’re talking about King Joffrey Baratheon of the House of Lannisters (Jack Gleeson).
Joffrey married Margaery in a lavish ceremony that the Lannisters could certainly not afford but went ahead and got either way because their reputation was at stake. By the end of the wedding ceremony, Joffrey was dead – and in the most gruesome manner too, by poison.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Graves, the director of the episode, stresses that fans should not freak out over this because it is by no means the end. It wasn’t the end when Ned Stark died, so why should it be now? After all, people loved Ned and he was good and kind, which is unlike anything you can say about Joffrey.
In the “Game of Thrones” universe, every death is a new beginning, especially if it’s a major one. Moreover, if you fear that such a shock comes too early in the season, don’t: Graves promises there’s much more to come in the next episodes.
“Joffrey's death is a beginning. Ned Stark's death was not an end, it was a beginning. It's when the show began. All the deaths are like that, and Joffrey's is no different. Joffrey's death affects the show through to the climax,” he explains.
Graves says it took 6 months to prepare the Purple Wedding and lots of precautions to prevent details from the ceremony from leaking to the press. The wedding itself took 5 whole days to shoot and was as emotional an affair as you might imagine.
Gleeson, who played Joffrey, will be missed on set, the director continues. He is a very smart and well behaved, incredibly sweet kid that is perhaps one of the most talented actors of the young generation: the moment “Action!” was called, he became Joffrey and people just forgot that he was Jack Gleeson.
“He is incredible, and he will do anything. It just so happens that he had incredibly lovely parents who raised him right. He is extremely intelligent and he understands psychology. He's done a brilliant job from brilliant writing of fleshing out this guy and what he's thinking. It's something to see on set. It's like a Jekyll and Hyde thing,” Graves said.
With such praise heaped on him, it’s even more painful to think that Gleeson is thinking of retiring from movies and do only theater at least for a while, because he doesn’t like the celebrity status that comes with having a career in Hollywood.
Of course, those who read George R.R. Martin’s books on which the HBO show is based, know that Joffrey’s death is just the beginning. But those of you who didn’t get the chance yet, how do you feel about the Purple Wedding? How did you react to seeing Joffrey die? Let us know in the comments section below.