Although the Iron Throne has had many rulers over the course of Game of Thrones, as the show hits its final two seasons, it’s about to offer a definitive final sovereign. And while some believe there won’t be a throne when all is said and done, Conleth Hill, who plays the spymaster eunuch Varys, offered support for an alternate theory.
About the possibility of Varys and Littlefinger teaming up to take over once and for all, he said in a recent interview, “I can tell you that I loved working with Aidan Gillen, and I can tell you that it’s possible we work together again.”
While his answer is as noncommittal as you’d expect from a show that went great lengths to pretend its star was dead for a year, it does offer support for an intriguing fan theory — that almost every event has been part of Varys’s long game. It was Varys who orchestrated Daenerys’s marriage to Drogo, and the gift of her dragon eggs. It was Varys who both spoke against Tyrion on the stand and helped free him, delivering him to her. And at the end of Season 6, it was Varys who rallied the Tyrells and Martells to join Daenerys’s mission.
While Littlefinger seems to want to sit on the throne, in spelling out his motives to Sansa, he tipped his hand. Varys is quietly in the background tipping his hand to now one — and that’s all the grounds he needs to ultimately take the Throne in Season 8. It would be just like George R.R. Martin to have the dragons and White Walkers ultimately fall secondary to human scheming.
