It's Rumor Time: Gendry might row his way into a big part of Game Of Thrones' final arc
Game Of Thrones has more characters than it knows what to do with, especially if you include people we’re never going to see again, like, say, the theater troupe that almost got Arya killed. But not all side characters are equal—and the bastard son of Robert Baratheon seems like someone who could still play a big role.
Or at least that’s what Joe Dempsie, who portrays the newly battle-axe-swinging blacksmith on the show, recently hinted at during a new interview with Digital Spy. After giving the requisite (and presumably legally required, at this point) disclaimer that no one should assume his character makes it all the way to the end, he explained that he’s actually in a decent amount of the finale season. “I’ve done well out of it this year, for sure,” Dempsie said. “As with all these things, we never shoot in chronological order—so you might have people coming in at the beginning and at the end, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they make it all the way through!”
Given the years-long absence Gendry original had between appearances on the show (after rowing away from Dragonstone way back in season 4, he finally reappeared in the first half of season seven, joining Jon Snow in the journey beyond the Wall, only to be sent racing back to Ser Davos to send a raven to Daenaerys), Dempsie was understandably unsure if he’d ever reappear. “I’m aware that [showrunner] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] have a million-and-one things that they need to think about when they’re putting their story arcs together,” he said, adding that despite reassurances from the two that his character would be brought back, he understands the ever-changing nature of TV narratives. But here’s the line that suggests he might be around for awhile yet:
“It wouldn’t have surprised me, and it wouldn’t have angered me at all, if they’d got to season 7 and just not really had time for Gendry. So to not only come back and have that loose end tied up, but to have been given the amount of story I got, has been great—because not everyone gets that.”
We can now proceed to speculate on whether Gendry single-handedly murders everyone in King’s Landing and seizes the throne for himself and House Baratheon. Well, either that, or goes back to making swords. There’s always the slim chance of a quiet retirement, perhaps somewhere warm, where no one wants to leech the blood from his body for magic spells.