Chart-topping singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran made a brief appearance in the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere — he played one of several Lannister soldiers Arya met on her way to King’s Landing. The scene was sweet and poignant, as Arya reconnected with her humanity and the audience was reminded that enemy soldiers were mostly just people caught up a conflict bigger than they were. But for some reason, people freaked the hell out, outraged that a man with that many Number 1 hits would dare have a minor role on a TV show.
Talking to MTV News, Sheeran looked back on his appearance and forecast his unnamed character’s chances of survival going forward. “We were all quite young, those soldiers,” Sheeran said. “I doubt I’m going to survive for that long, to be honest, when there are dragons in the world.”
When Arya met them, Sheeran’s unit was heading south on a mission to help keep keep the peace in the Riverlands — Arya herself threw the area into disarray when she massacred the Frey family. That means he probably wasn’t part of the massive battle in “The Spoils of War” wherein Daenerys fried half the Lannister army from the back of her dragon. But his point still stands: Being a nameless soldier in Westeros isn’t safe. Just ask the red shirts who died on Jon Snow’s mission north of the Wall.
But whether his character dies or not, Sheeran doubts he’ll be returning for the show’s eighth and final season, which starts filming in October. “No one wants to see me come back,” he said. “I wanted to be a cameo in it, and I’ve done the cameo. I’m cool with it, though. I enjoyed it.”
For those who don’t know, Sheeran was offered the cameo in the first place in part because Maisie Williams (Arya) is a huge fan of his. “She’s come to gigs for years,” Sheeran said. “They basically put me in a scene with her to kind of be like, ‘Hey, thanks for doing the show for so many years. Ed’s going to be in it.'” Naturally, when showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss offered Sheeran the part, it was a “very easy yes.” Wouldn’t it be for anybody?