Kit Harington said Game Of Thrones “kind of screwed the political landscape” after politicians tried to emulate a character from the hugely popular show.
The British actor will be reprising his role as Jon Snow in the eighth and final season of HBO’s behemoth when it returns next month.
During an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, Harington discussed the impact of the massively popular series.
Winter is coming to the Late Show tonight as @GameOfThrones star Kit Harington chats with @StephenAtHome! #LSSC pic.twitter.com/AlmF358yTs
— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) March 6, 2019
He said he “can’t quite grasp” the level of fame he has achieved since first playing Snow in 2011, and joked he “couldn’t even grow a beard then”.
Harington, 32, said the journey had been “extraordinary” and at the outset “all I knew is I booked a pilot on an HBO TV show and that was just winning the lottery anyway”.
He also discussed the impact Game Of Thrones has had on politics and said some politicians may have taken inspiration from King Joffrey, a tyrannical ruler who is cruel to his subjects.
He said: “I got this theory that we kind of screwed the political landscape. I just felt like certain political figures tried to emulate Joffrey and things went a bit wrong.”
HBO is notoriously defensive when it comes to spoilers for its premiere series and London-born Harington said it was difficult to avoid spilling any secrets.
And he revealed he was consistently wrong about guessing what would happen ahead of each season.
The trailer is here. #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/L48jOwsUzn
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) March 5, 2019
He said: “I had theories all along and all of them were wrong. I’m quite glad I never told anyone my theories.”
When asked to elaborate by Colbert, Harington jokingly replied: “I can’t say zero. This is the problem, Stephen!”
The trailer for Game Of Thrones season eight arrived on Tuesday and featured Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen.
Game Of Thrones is based on George RR Martin’s series of fantasy novels, A Song Of Ice And Fire, and adapted for television by David Benioff and DB Weiss.
It returns on April 14.