Game of Thrones: Cersei's revenge was originally even crueller, says Lena Headey

While Septa Unella's infamous "Shame!" chant in Cersei's walk of atonement has gone on to become one of Game of Thrones' best memes, every fan knew that Cersei's revenge was just a matter of when, not if. That moment finally came in 'The Winds of Winter', which saw the newly crowned Queen of the Seven Kingdoms leave the nun with The Mountain. It's a cruel scene, but Unella was originally meant to suffer a worse fate:

"The scene was meant to be worse, but they couldn’t do it", Headey told Entertainment Weekly. "This is like the tame version. It’s pretty bad still though. I’d take being exploded in the Sept over that any day". 

"It’s so filthy. It’s so great", Headey continued. "Everybody’s witnessed what happened with the two of them. I don’t think people will be able to help going, “Yes!” But it’s so depraved, it’s brilliant".

In what is a testament to what Game of Thrones does so well, I wasn't exactly rooting against Cersei as we all know Unella had it coming. Though we'll probably never know what the original plan was, suggested violence can often be just as, if not more effective than actually showing what transpires, and that was definitely the case here. 

Season 7 of Game of Thrones will debut in 2017.

Images: HBO

Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.

Latest in Action Shows
John Bernthal The Punisher
Jon Bernthal teases upcoming "dark" Punisher special: "It's the version that this character deserves"
Daredevil: Born Again
Elden Henson jokes that what happened to Foggy in Daredevil: Born Again went down because he ran over Kevin Feige's foot with his car
Daredevil recap: The Defenders
Marvel fans are discussing which of the Netflix series characters would have survived the Blip
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again killing off a fan-favorite character is controversial, but it might prove to be the right choice for the new Marvel show
Daredevil: Born Again
Daredevil: Born Again immediately earns its title with a foundation-shaking opening that sets it apart from its Netflix predecessor
Alan Ritchson as Jack Reacher in Reacher season 3
Reacher star Alan Ritchson wants to play Batman so bad, he says "you wouldn't even have to pay me"
Latest in News
Players in GTA Online running businesses and playing missions
GTA publisher is suing a GTA Online website that lets you buy hacked accounts, which "risks upending the GTA 5 player experience"
Death Stranding 2 trailer showing Sam shooting at an enemy
Hideo Kojima aims to beat the ‘walking simulator’ allegations as Death Stranding 2 releases combat-heavy trailer
Giancarlo Esposito and Stanley Tucci in The Electric State
Stars Stanley Tucci and Giancarlo Esposito say their new dystopian sci-fi movie The Electric State is more like our own reality than we might realize
Suikoden
Suikoden lead hopes to expand the cult JRPG series "beyond where it ended" and would happily follow Zelda to the silver screen: "If you have any friends in Hollywood, please let us know"
Stardew Valley Baldur's Gate 3 mod Baldur's Village
Baldur's Gate 3 director Swen Vincke gives his official approval to the Stardew Valley mod that brings the D&D RPG to Pelican Town
Kaitlyn Dever as Abby in The Last Of Us season 2
The Last of Us season 2's Abby star Kaitlyn Dever admits it's been hard to not look at character backlash on the internet