Isaac Hempstead Wright loves to give Hodor a hug every chance he gets, and our “Game of Thrones”-loving hearts hurt

In anticipation for the DVD and Blu-Ray release of Game of Thrones season seven, HelloGiggles caught up with Isaac Hempstead Wright, who plays Bran Stark on the hit series. Over the phone, he talked walked us through Bran’s new mindset as the Three-Eyed Raven and how it feels to be the most powerful person in Westeros. That conversation can be found here. We also chatted about the best Game of Thrones fan theories, how often Isaac catches up with Kristian Nairn (Hodor), and what it’ll be like when Game of Thrones is finally over.

HelloGiggles: There are so many fan theories out there, and Bran is the subject of a lot of them. Are there any theories that you, as a fan of the show or a part of the show that you have really loved?

Isaac Hempstead Wright: There is a little part of me wants this whole theory that Varys is actually a mermaid to be true, I think that would be a nice twist. 

There are great ones about Bran. I like the idea that Bran now goes back in time as the Three-Eyed Raven, into young Bran’s dream to guide him up to the cage in that kind of paradoxical cycle where you know Bran had to go there, so he could become Bran so he could tell young Bran to go, so he could become Bran, and so forth. The great thing about Bran’s storyline is that now that we are aware that time is not necessarily linear, it means that you’ve got a whole, whole new time travel based theory you can play around with. 

HG: What do you think about the Bran is the Night King theory? That is a very popular one.

IHW: Yeah, yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I personally think it is a bit far-fetched, but then again, if someone had told me the Hodor idea, I probably have said, “No, you’re crazy.” So, who knows. I’d like to think Bran isn’t the Night King, that would be a shame, at the end of the day that Bran is trying to defeat himself. But yeah I’m not sure.

HG: This season saw you reunite with Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams people who you grew up on the show with, but you hadn’t shot scenes with since I think the pilot. What was that like sort of reuniting with them?

IHW: Well it was all so interesting, because I think it was only like the second time in all of the show that all three of us were on-screen together, I think the only other time there was every single one of us was the king’s arrival back in episode one.  In many ways, we never actually acted together before, at least not as an adult, and my primary relationship with them has been sort of a social one, you know, off-set and sort of hanging out with them. So it was actually really fun, to get to act with them at the, in a scene and be our characters together. You know I always watch their storyline unfold on-screen and being big fans of their characters, and then to get to then be involved with them, and their journey was really fun.

HG: Was it hard to go back for Season 7 without Hodor, Kristian Nairn, who you spent so many years working with?

IHW: Oh, absolutely. That was, it is so bizarre because I think he has been in pretty much every scene I’d ever been in by the very nature of his role, because Bran needed him to get anywhere. So all of a sudden going from having Kristian with me all the time, to not at all, it was sad. We used to have such laughs on set, he was a big cuddly fuzzy giant, who I just bother all day…it was sad not to be on-set with him [in Season 7]. And you know in many ways I think that helped in a sense, because Bran had been so happy-go-lucky, that just Bran, there is no moment where he is going to sit around casually and have a nice time. And so perhaps not having one of my best pals on set helped [get into] a character that was quite serious.

HG: Do you still keep in touch with Kristian whenever you can?

IHW: Yeah, all the time, yeah when I was over in Belfast, I saw him the other week, but he’s so busy lately, really going all over the world all the time with his DJing and but whenever I get the chance to see him, I go and give him a quick hug. Yeah.

HG: As you look beyond to life without Game of Thrones, is it going to be weird for you to not have to talk about being Bran all the time? Or have to go back to Belfast? Is weird to realize that this is the end?

IHW: Yeah, it will be strange, I think we won’t feel it until after we have done all of the publicity, and after season eight has been out, and it gets to about the time of year that you usually get a call saying, “Right we just organized your flight to Belfast” and then we’ll be like “Oh, this isn’t happening anymore, it’s over.” And I think that will really be odd. Because it is such a role we still got to go, we’ve got to finish so much shooting, and there will be loads and loads of press, so I don’t think while that’s going on we’ll quite feel it, because we will be so [busy finishing the season]. But it will be after that, after the bright lights and it’s aired and people are sort of moving on a bit, that will be really bizarre. Yeah, that will be a real sad time. But I think the fact that’s it’s not like we aren’t going to keep in touch. It’s are such a tight family anyway, we will be seeing a lot of each other, which will be nice.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Seventh Season is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.