Red And Buried: 'Game Of Thrones' Star Knew They Were Leaving A Year In Advance

Unless you can pop a smoke baby out of your lady parts and are some sort of Red Priestess — or apparently The Hound — seeing the future of Game of Thrones is a privilege reserved for the likes of George R.R. Martin or showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. That being said, nabbing yourself any role on HBO's Ice and Fire saga can assure you of two things: the chance of some Hollywood notoriety, and a pretty finite career on the show.

Quite literally a show where no one is safe, even huge stars like Sean Bean were shown the door before they could cash their first paycheck. Especially as we move beyond the source material of #GeorgeRRMartin's books, all bets are off on who lives and who dies on Thrones, but it turns out one person knew it was coming without staring into the flames of a fire.

Marge and In Charge

In the great casting cull of 2016, one name on the death list hurt more than most, and to be honest, I am still wearing my best Olenna Tyrell veil and in a state of mourning for the loss of Margaery Tyrell. However, it seems that someone had stamped Marge's card long before #NatalieDormer bowed out in that blast of wildfire.

Lasting a whole five seasons, Margaery made it much further than most of us would, considering she locked horns with Cersei Lannister. The buxom Princess of Thorns became a favorite of the King's Landing lower classes and of Thrones fans worldwide, and now, 35-year-old Dormer is looking back to reflect on her time of tits and Tommen. Speaking at London Comic-Con (via Radio Times), Dormer revealed that she knew her end was nigh even before Cersei lit the proverbial fuse to blow up the Great Sept of Baelor:

"Unlike a lot of cast I found out a year earlier than normal because it was meant to be like compensation: 'You will soon be free so shut up and stop complaining.'"

While being cast even as "Masked Unsullied No. 1" on Thrones would be a coup for any actor, we tune in each week and forget what an epic feat of television we are actually watching. Stars may be sworn to secrecy, but Dormer reminds us that it isn't just a case of turn up, drop your robe, then roll around in money:

"We all have to dedicate, like, six months of our lives to Game of Thrones every year. As actors we do get frustrated if we can't do the other jobs we want to do in the other months of the year."

"So I phoned Dan and David because there was a job that I really wanted to do and they said 'No, you can't do it, we won't release you from the schedule' and I was really upset and they said, 'But don't worry Natalie, we're gonna kill you next year.'"

Growing Strong

Thankfully, where some stars would've been peeved that they have just been axed from the sweetest gig around, Dormer took it in her stride and thought "WWMD?" (what would Margaery do?). Smiling sweetly, she thanked the showrunners and moved on to continue her career in Hollywood:

"I finally made the movie that I wrote. It took about eight years to get it together – it's hard to make an independent movie – and if I'd still been in 'Game of Thrones' I wouldn't have been able to make 'In Darkness.'"

While Dormer's departure was one hell of a shocker, it was soon followed by Season 7's first big bon-voyage. The third episode of our current run, "The Queen's Justice," saw the whole Tyrell dynasty fall to ruin. Dame Diana Rigg ended her tenure as the ferocious Lady Olenna and the family name was resigned to the history books.

Now that the rose bush has been pruned, it appears there is one less family in Westeros to be the "thorn" in Cersei's side. Who knows though, we didn't see Dormer's body (for once), so maybe Margaery escaped the Sept through a secret tunnel, only to return as some Arya Stark faceless assassin? We can but dream!

(Source: Radio Times)