1 of 2 | "Game of Thrones" actor Liam Cunningham arrives for the SAG Awards in Los Angeles on January 29. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI |
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Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Liam Cunningham says he is to begin rehearsals for the final season of Game of Thrones this week, but he insists he isn't sure when the episodes will air on HBO.
Asked to confirm reports that the Season 8 debut of the fantasy drama has been delayed until 2019, the 56-year-old Irish actor told reporters at New York Comic Conon Friday, "I have no idea!
"Listen, HBO don't know when it's coming out. You need to correct this. We don't know. We have kind of a loose finish end," said Cunningham, who plays Jon Snow's adviser Davos Seaworth. "Let me tell you exactly how things are. I have six scripts on my computer that I can't open because of all the security levels on it and because of the 5-hour difference and we were supposed to get them earlier on this week, but they were, obviously, finishing up whatever little rewrites they were doing, so we just got them."
Cunningham said he planned to leave Comic Con and head back to Belfast where the Game of Thrones cast was scheduled to read through the scripts together before starting rehearsals this week, with shooting slated to begin Oct. 16 or 19.
"The end date -- even from the producers' side -- has not been decided," he said.
"God bless HBO and everybody involved in this. They do not want to do this story a disservice. They are throwing the kitchen sink at this thing to go out because the star of the show is the show. It's not anyone in it. It's not even David Benioff and Dan Weiss. It's not George R.R. Martin. It's a collective effort, and we just all feel blessed to be part of. Generally, it's a thing I'm going to be incredibly proud of for the rest of my life because of the caliber of the people I am working with and the quality of the scripts and the trouble we've caused and the joy we've brought and the heartache we've caused and all that sort of stuff. It's wonderful."
Cunningham also will be seen in an episode of Amazon's 2018 anthology series, Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams.