In an interview with IndieWire, Sapochnik revealed that there were disagreements between himself and producers David Benioff and Dan D. B. Weiss, who had differing opinions on how to wrap the show. Essentially, Sapochniksays he wanted the Battle of Winterfell to be more shocking than what made it to television and to basically "kill everyone."
"I wanted to kill Jorah in the horse charge at the beginning," he said. "I was up for killing absolutely everyone. I wanted it to be ruthless, so that in the first 10 minutes, you say, All bets are off; anyone could die.' And David [Benioff] and Dan [D. B. Weiss] didn't want to. There was a lot of back-and-forth on that."
Despite not getting his way, Sapochnik didn't sound bitter about the professional clash. “I think a key thing is like it’s not my show right? I didn’t come up with the show and make it. I am a hired director to go and do that. They have let me in and let me be involved, and I’ve really loved doing that. But final cut is not mine. Final cut is theirs; it’s their choice.”
Just a few days ago, Lena Headey revealed she wasn't too happy with how her character, Cersei, left the show, either. In an interview with The Guardian, Headey said she wanted "a better death" for the Lannister queen, who ultimately died after being crushed under a pile of rocks with her brother, Jamie. "I will say I wanted a better death," she said. "Obviously you dream of your death. You could go in any way on that show. So I was kind of gutted. But I just think they couldn't have pleased everyone. No matter what they did, I think there was going to be some big comedown from the climb."
A better death for Cersei we can get on board with, but everyone dying at the Battle of Winterfell? The jury's still out on that one.
WATCH: Gwendoline Christie predicted the end of Game of Thrones years ago
