The Season 7 premiere of Game of Thrones broke records and was widely praised by fans, but there was one moment in the episode that many people weren’t so wild about: Ed Sheeran’s cameo. Now, Thrones is no stranger to musician cameos, but Sheeran’s prominence in the scene, combined with a rich vein of already existing hatred for the singer, seemed egregious. But, it could have been much worse. Like, for instance, Sheeran could have violently had a man’s eye gouged out.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
In 2015, Sheeran appeared on the now-canceled FX historical drama The Bastard Executioner. Sheeran, who also contributed the show’s theme song, had a minor role playing Sir Cormac, a sadistic lackey to a powerful priest in King Edward 1’s castle. In one scene, he tells an interrogator to “take the eye” of a poor bastard they’re torturing for information. As the dagger slides into the man’s eyeball, Sheeran seems pleased.
Let’s watch.
So, maybe we’re lucky that Sheeran just sang a little song instead of inflicting bodily harm to one of our main characters. (Also, funnily enough, the man doing the stabbing in that scene is played by Francis Magee, who played the Night’s Watch recruiter Yoren on Game of Thrones. Small world, eh?)
After the episode aired, Sheeran, who publicly stopped actively using his Twitter account some time ago, deleted the entire thing. While there were reports that he axed Twitter altogether because people were being mean to him about the cameo, that’s unconfirmed, and the account is back up and running.
Game of Thrones Season 7 is currently airing on HBO on Sundays at 9 p.m. Eastern. It’s believed that Sheeran won’t be making another appearance on the program.
