Game of Thrones Director Confused Over Ed Sheeran Cameo Outrage

Ed Sheeran made a brief appearance as a Lannister soldier in Game of Thrones Season 7 and people basically lost their shit.

If you missed the premiere, Arya encounters a group of Lannister soldiers on her way to King’s Landing. Sheeran’s character was singing a song book fans know well. It’s a song someone wrote about Tyrion killing Shae, and it possibly foreshadows events to come. Arya shares food and drinks with the soldier, showing that she’s capable of having a normal moment in the Game of Thrones world.

Yes, it was a bit jarring to see Sheeran in the Game of Thrones universe, but the guy wasn’t terrible. He played his part well and Arya shined in the scene. But people couldn’t get over Sheeran, like he was the worst thing to ever happen to show.

Even the episode’s director, Jeremy Podeswa, was confused by Sheeran becoming a hot topic.

“I’m a bit surprised that people have made that much fuss about it,” Podeswa told the Daily Beast . “To me, he does seem quite organic, in his own way, to the show.”

“The truth is, everybody on the show is famous now,” Podeswa added. “So it doesn't mean anything to me. It’s about, are they appropriate for the role? Are they doing a good job? And it was yes, yes, yes to all those questions with him.”

There it is. Sheeran did great job. Stop coming at him on Twitter. If any Game of Thrones fan were in his position, they definitely wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of the show. Casting director Nina Gold also came to Sheeran’s defense regarding the decision to put him in the show during an interview with Vanity Fair .

“We’ve got to the place where it doesn’t unbalance it—the other actors have become stars in their own right—and we haven’t overdone it,” Gold told Vanity Fair . “It’s quite a subtle smattering. We’re not casting them because they’re names or they’re not names, we’ve just been casting them because they seem like they’d be really great in the part. And when you say, ‘What about Max von Sydow?’ and [show-runners] David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] really respond to it, once you start thinking about it, it’s just kind of irresistible.”

And no, Sheeran didn’t delete his Twitter because of the Game of Thrones cameo backlash. He’s back on it. Leave the guy alone. Game of Thrones airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.