Game of Thrones Star Explains How That Melting Ice Video Was Basically Like a New Episode

When Game of Thrones revealed its season seven premiere date with a lengthy Facebook Live video of fire melting a block of ice, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau — who plays Jaime Lannister — was nervous about the way fans would respond.

During a recent interview with the Daily Beast, the 46-year-old actor reflected on his personal reaction to the technical difficulty-plagued announcement. “I spoke to [showrunners] Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] about that and they were like, ‘Oh god… That’s embarrassing.’ Everyone was like, ‘What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen?! It’s melting! It crashed! Oh my god!’ It’s like, just walk away… just walk away. It’s just a date!”

However, after considering everything the show’s viewers have bounced back from in the past, he realized he was worried for no reason. “You know, I was actually thinking, ‘Is there going to be a backlash and people will think, “F—k you guys for that!”?’ But that’s really happened with every time the show kills off a major character: ‘Never again! F—k you! I’m never going to watch this show!’ And, you know, they keep coming back.”

Game of Thrones returns to HBO on July 16, 2017.