Lena Headey explains what really happened with Cersei’s pregnancy

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Every now and then, I’ll come across some Game of Thrones headline and I’ll still get so mad. By the old gods and the new, Dan Weiss and David Benioff really screwed up the final season. If only they had insisted on a full ten-episode season. If only George RR Martin had given them more guidance about certain characters and plot points. If only Disney hadn’t hired them to do some Star Wars movies. If only they gave a sh-t about writing for those amazing female characters. Instead, we get a conqueror queen being gaslighted by her advisors, we get the Queen of the North accepting her marital rape as a plot device to make her character “stronger,” and we got Arya doing some dumb sh-t with a horse (I’m still like ???? about the horse).

Obviously, there are still a million unanswered questions about the series and those characters and whether that ending was really how it should have happened. One of those questions which lingered throughout the final season was “wtf is happening with Cersei’s pregnancy?” Cersei got pregnant again by her brother, Jaime Lannister. That happened in the seventh season, and in Season 8, suddenly she was banging Euron and the creepy maester was confirming that she was pregnant in front of Euron. People thought that she was still preg with Jaime’s baby and she would try to pass it off as Euron’s kid. Turns out…not so much.

What could have been for Cersei Lannister…Game of Thrones star Lena Headey appeared at a comic book convention in Munich, Germany, where she revealed a key scene that was totally scrapped in the seventh season of Game of Thrones. This scene would’ve clued in viewers to a lot of Cersei’s decisions in the final season.

Headey said the scene, which was from season seven, showed Cersei “lose the baby.” She described it was “traumatic” and a “great moment for Cersei.”

“I kind of loved doing that because I thought it would’ve served her differently,” Headey said. Cersei said she was pregnant with her brother Jaime’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) baby in season seven. Then for the rest of season eight, she and others kept referencing the baby.

[From E! News]

So was she genuinely preg with Euron’s baby when she died? Or did the creepy maester lie? And why was the scene cut? Because we needed five more scenes of Tyrion and Varys mansplaining why Dany is crazy? Or maybe we needed more dark AF scenes of mid-air dragon collisions which NO ONE COULD EVEN SEE. Or maybe we needed to spend more time with Jon Snow, who was literally a song of fire and ice, only to see him get sold out and shipped off north of the wall for NO REASON. I just can’t with any of this. But yes, it would have added something to Season 8 if we knew what happened to the All-Lannister pregnancy.

cersei bells3

Photos courtesy of HBO/Game of Thrones.

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59 Responses to “Lena Headey explains what really happened with Cersei’s pregnancy”

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  1. Original Jenns says:

    “If only they had insisted on a full ten-episode season” HBO wanted more seasons, or at least more episodes. D&D declined this. Everyone wanted to give the characters more time except for the show runners, Just had to add this! D&D wanted this to end so they could move on to the Mouse House.

    • Ainsley7 says:

      D&D also wanted to move on to their new HBO show called Confederate. A show set in a world where the south stayed separate and slavery is still legal there. It’s a gross concept that shows what kind of people they really are.

      • Snappyfish says:

        Holy Hell, Confederate? No, under no circumstances, just No. what an awful concept for a show especially after all the madness of Charlottesville & the maga idiots marching around.

        They ruined GOT. This plot twist with Cersei is just another example of how bad they truly are. God help them with the Star Wars faithful if they do the same to it.

      • Spicecake38 says:

        That’s not right,a show about if slavery still existed is absolutely NOT what this country/world needs right now or ever.Historical documentary or historical fiction allows for us to hopefully learn from atrocities,but making a *what if * type of show or series sounds like more glorification of a terrible time and will also give the racist loonies more ideas…Just no effing way.

      • Angela82 says:

        UGH thank goodness that was scrapped. I am still fuming thinking about the shit that happened last night.

  2. Sayrah says:

    Head. Desk.

    Wtf man? Why wouldn’t they develop that plot point? It would have given Cersei even more depth. Ugh

    • Char says:

      If the actors have to explain the plot after the show is over, you know it was poorly written.

  3. JayBlue says:

    I’m in two minds about this. On the one hand, yes, it could have shown more behind Cersei’s machinations, but on the other, I’m fed up of women’s storyline being so intrinsically attached to motherhood and being little more than a vagina or a womb.

    So yeah, it would probably be just as hit and miss as the rest of the female storylines.

    • entine says:

      In medieval times that’s what most women , especially royal women were, wombs. I hear a lot of youtube biographies of royal consorts, and one after the other same story, many died from births gone wrong, few children survived infancy. they were a coin in the exchange of power.

  4. Jenns says:

    When the entire S7 leaked, I remember this being part of the plot. And I was expecting it in the final episode, so I was curious as to why it was removed. Now, after seeing that mess of S8, I honestly think they decided to keep Ceris pregnant so Tyrion could keep repeating that she loved her children. Because that was his only bargaining chip when he met with her.

    TL;DR – Basically Cersi’s pregnancy was just another sh*t plot point because D&D had no idea/didn’t care about ending the show. I honestly wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall in their writing session. Imagine how painful is would be to hear those two bros bouncing ideas off of each other and actually believing that they were good.

    • maya8 says:

      I don’t think D & D thought that far ahead or even cared. It was obvious in season 8 that they just wanted the show over with. Like that cryptic shit Qyburn said to Bronn about Cersei having different plans for the dragon queen, which turned out to be no plan. Also i think the scene was cut off as a way to mess with the fans and keep them guessing considering the whole season, basically scene to scene, had leaked. Honestly that was my only way of dealing with the clusterfuck of the last 2 seasons. I read all the spoilers so i was prepared.

      • ReginaGeorge says:

        There were a lot of things missing. After Jon and Dany fly their dragons to the waterfall, there was a deleted scene where Jon notices and tells Dany that it seemed Rhaegal knew what he was thinking and where he wanted him to go. Miguel Sapochnik said he had intended to bring Nymeria and her superpack into the fray during the long night battle and also having an undead Hodor show up. He also was gonna show why Bran warged away, which was that he was using the birds and other animals to force NK and Viserion towards the path Bran wanted him to take. Also, he had a whole 1v1 Night King duel with what I presume was Jon. Sigh. Apparently D&D had him cut a lot and discard some of his other ideas. Grrrrr!!

      • IlsaLund says:

        @ReginaGeorge. OMG, if Sapochnik has been allowed to do those things, it would have added so much to the show. It’s obvious, others had better ideas and insight into how the show should have been written. Unbelievable how D&D messed things up.

      • ReginaGeorge says:

        IlsaLund

        Right??? I wish Miguel would have fought a bit harder to keep his vision, but apparently, the time constraints didn’t help either. I never bought D&D’s BS excuse that there just wasn’t that much more story left. Had we gotten a full 10 eps in S7, Dany and Jon’s relationship would have been fleshed out better and a full S8 would have been able to accommodate all of Miguel’s vision. Long Night would have probably been a two part episode. And Dany’s “snapped” moment would have had more “meat” to it, as Miguel also eludes to having that play out a little differently as well. I really don’t know why D&D sabotaged those episodes the way they did.

      • himmiefan says:

        And then Bronn rushes in on Jamie and Tyrion and says that Cersei paid him to kill them, and they pay him off and that was that. What??? What was the point?

        Cersei was supposed to die at the hand of the little brother. Youngest child Dany destroying the town is a stretch – or was her dragon the last to hatch (eye roll).

    • ChillyWilly says:

      Yup. It was bad storytelling. Without GRR Martins books to guide them, D&D went off track. It sucks for the cast and crew who worked their butts off and especially for the fans. We deserved better.

    • Jenns says:

      I totally agree that they wanted it over and done with. And I also think their egos prevented them from pushing some of their workload off to Bryan Cogman and other writers.

      But I truly wonder if their egos also told them that what they had put together in S7 & S8 was good. Or deep down did they know it was a mess, but neither one wanted to say it out loud, so they just put that mess on paper and hoped for the best.

      Either way, they’re just two mediocre bros who blew it.

      • Lauren says:

        It’s the ego part. They are massive assholes.

        I mean, why else put forth the series finale for Emmys, when it’s the lowest rated episode in the entire series, instead of episode 2, which is such a wonderful episode? They want the Emmys, and they don’t want another GOT writer to get one.

  5. Stacy Dresden says:

    I totally agree. I am still mad!

  6. Lucy says:

    It’s been a month since the finale. All I know is that, in my own happy place, either Gendry is in that ship, or Arya is heading to Storm’s End after being done with her exploring of the Far West.

  7. eto says:

    Wait, what did Arya do with a horse??? Or are you talking about Gendry? I’m lost lol.

    • Becks1 says:

      I think she means Arya and the white horse at the end of “the bells.”

    • Renee says:

      Yeah what about a horse??????

    • Lauren says:

      She got on a white horse and rode off in at the end of the episode 5. Then in episode 6, she’s without the horse and walking around the city.

      What happened to the horse? No one knows.

      God, I hope she turns that boat around and gets back to Gendry.

      GOT Season 8 is the reason fan fiction was invented….

      • outoftheshadows says:

        The horse refers to the tiny toy horse that the little girl was holding earlier in that episode. Remember how a mother saves Arya from being trampled? And then Arya tries to save that mother (and a bunch of other people) from death in one of the buildings? She drags the mother and child out into the street, and then they get killed when Danaerys does a fly-by with a fire-breathing dragon. In the final moments of the episode, Arya sees the little burned body holding that horse toy. Then the real horse shows up, all bloody but otherwise unharmed. The symbolism of Arya–who is supposed to be so close to death by virtue of being Nobody–on a pale horse is a Biblical reference–maybe to throw us off, because Jon Snow kills Danaerys instead. But yeah, I think those details got buried in the “let me kill everyone in this entire city” plotline.

      • Lauren says:

        No, I got those references – Death rides a pale mare – and I know about the toy horse.

        But what the fuck happens to the horse? Where did she go? Why did she get off of it? Symbolism has to do something and make sense within the context of a work, otherwise it looks stupid.

        It’s shit like that, and there’s a ton of it, that ruined this last season.

      • Lucy says:

        If anything, I’m just satisfied that, after all the sh*t they’ve been through at such young ages, they’re both alive, safe and free. She has chosen to live under her own name, and he has finally regained his identity and got the chance to lead a better life. We’ll never know, but maybe there’s a chance for them in the future…

      • Lauren says:

        @Lucy, see this where I have to have my head canon comes in, because I don’t see either of their fates as happy. She’s running away from her family, and he has a realm he doesn’t really want (he was fine being a blacksmith). She’s left still isolated from those she loves and he’s left completely heartbroken. Of the entire series, their relationship was the sweetest, and it just ends on such a sad note.

  8. Walking alive says:

    I don’t even want to re watch any of the episodes knowing the shit ending ! Pisses me off how they ruined daenerys character

    • Sayrah says:

      Yep. Just keep watching that video of Emilia Clarke at the Houston rockets playoff game. It’s so great.

    • Jenns says:

      Same. I’m still so bitter about it.

      However, all of this made me go back and revisit the first season of Lost. I loved that show, but hated the ending, and never watched it again. And re-watching it, I realized how the first season is so, so good. I’m hoping in a few years, I’ll revisit GoT S1-S6. And then I’ll just end it with S8, episode 2. The other episodes in S7 and S8 can burn in dragon fire.

      • FHMom says:

        That first season of Lost was masterful. True Blood’s first season was also fabulous. I guess it’s hard to keep that momentum going. The shows end up becoming parodies of themselves.

    • Lauren says:

      I’m the same. The series is mostly ruined for me.

      Which is why I have my own head canon now, and read fix-its on different fanfic platforms.

      • Humbugged says:

        These fanfics you love all end up with the colonial invader winning I’m guessing .

  9. Becks1 says:

    I am kind of glad they cut out her losing the baby – it seems it would have been another tragic event happening to a woman that changed her character (made her stronger? or made her crazier? hard to tell with D&D). But the pregnancy was such a weird plot point in S8. Like it got mentioned at random times and pretty much seemed to serve only so Tyrion could keep bringing it up.

  10. teehee says:

    I think maintaining the pregnancy, maintained the suspense. The “oh no, if she dont die, there’ll be many more generations of freakin LANNISTERS running the world” and it also cued more human empathy for her vile character. It was the one human thing about her, or at least, the characters on the show kept sayin that.

  11. aiobhan targaryen says:

    Ughh. It would have made her little time left on the show make more sense if they put that scene of her losing the baby and then spending the rest of the season desperately trying to get pregnant. It is not as if they had a problem killing a pregant woman before. They made it a point to show Robb’s wife getting stabbed in the abdomen before she died.

    I wonder if the rumors are true that Dany was also supposed to be pregnant but they ended up scrapping that too because they didn’t want Jon to look bad after he killed her. I am not sure how he could look worse since he killed a twelve year old.

    • ReginaGeorge says:

      Jon and Dany are the same age in the books and on the show, though. Jon was born a few months before the sack of KL. Dany was born right after when her mother and Viserys fled the Capital.

  12. ReginaGeorge says:

    Between this revelation and also watching the YouTuber “Emergency Awesome” showing clips of a Miguel Sapochnik interview, talking about all of the deleted scenes and ideas he had for s8 eps 3 and 5 and how much more epic and amazing it would have been and how much more sense everything would have made, ugh! I just get soo frustrated.

    I made my peace with the final season but having this info is making me bonkers, and I hope when they release the full feature blue ray, they include these deleted scenes. I don’t care if they are unfinished or have no CGI applied to them. I’ll take it.

    I did figure she had lost the baby when I saw promos of her drinking in S8 and that it didn’t make sense when in S7 they made it a point to show Tyrion wondering why she wasn’t drinking and then tying that to him figuring out she was pregnant. I knew something was missing there.

    • ChillyWilly says:

      But before she and Jamie die, Cersei says “I want to live. I want my baby to live ” so D&D totally scrapped the miscarriage plot point, not just the actual scene from S7. I don’t think Cercei drinking had.anything to do with her being pregnant or not. She was a drunk and probably didn’t stop just because she was pregnant.

      • ReginaGeorge says:

        While I would agree with you, the fact that that scene in S7 it seemed to have gone all the way with pointing out specifically that she wasn’t drinking for a reason. Like it was meant to show she was abstaining due to her pregnancy.

      • outoftheshadows says:

        People didn’t understand that drinking harmed pregnancies until the twentieth century. I know there are a lot of anachronisms in the show, but I don’t think that was meant to be one of them.

  13. Gia says:

    We want that scene, obviously!!! It is missing. When I saw Cersei drinking wine in that last season I thought that she can’t be pregnant any more. Cersei is a not very nice person but she always loved her children and did anything to protect them.

  14. Lightpurple says:

    The star of Season 8 was Drogon.

    Episode 1 of Season 1 the thing Jon wanted most in life was to be a ranger North of the wall. The final scene of Season 8, Jon is a ranger North of the Wall. He got exactly what he wanted.

    • ReginaGeorge says:

      Honestly, that was one of the few reasons I wasn’t too mad with the ending. Jon was always my favorite character from day 1 and as long as he survived to the end and was somehow ok, I was able to make my peace with it.

    • ChillyWilly says:

      Yes, I was satisfied with Jon’s ending. He always fit in better with the Wildlings anyway. And I wasn’t mad at Ayra’s ending either. The rest of It was a bunch of malarkey.

  15. Spicecake38 says:

    We were the last people on planet earth who hadn’t watched GOT,so about a week after the finale and avoiding all spoilers we started to binge watch big time-like it was our job.I really liked the first few seasons then got a little lost between seasons 4-6,just a minute or two of not paying attention and I would be lost.Getting into seasons 7-8 I started reading parts of spoilers and reviews partly just to figure out who was who and what was happening. I am not happy with the ending.I hope I don’t sound like a terrible person but I was somehow very sympathetic to Cercei and Jamie I believed they really loved each other but of course that’s so wrong by our standards today.I also felt so strongly that Brie(sp?)and Jamie had a obvious bond/she loved him did he love her too?? I couldn’t help but love Dany but I also felt so sad at the end for Jon I’m just WTFing in so many different directions,and Brann being the king was alright but he acted like he really didn’t care or couldn’t stay awake,I don’t know but it could have ended better and with some answers.Hmmm🤔

  16. Susan says:

    The scene of Cersei miscarrying was spoiled by Frikidoctor, a very reputable Spanish GOT leak source. He got everything right last season except this one scene never appeared even though he has spoiled it. So it’s nice to know it did actually get filmed but was just left on the cutting floor. The way it was described was the Episode was going to end on a scene of Cersei waking up in a bed of blood.

  17. Kerfuffles says:

    While I admit it was flawed, I personally loved the final season of game of thrones and the finale. There were some plot points that were rushed but there was nonetheless a through line for each character from beginning to end.

    I suppose Cersei losing the baby could have explained things or could have confused things. I would personally love to see any and all cut scenes just because I miss the show and am always interested in why scenes from a show are cut.

  18. thea says:

    i still haven’t watched the finale or the penultimate episodes. I was abroad when it aired and after reading the spoilers, i don’t even want to bother.

  19. Andrea says:

    It did not make sense that she was still pregnant with Jaime’s baby. It took 1 month or more to get to Winterfell from King’s Landing. he spent maybe 2-3 months or more at Winterfell, fighting the Night King’s minions, happily being with Brienne THAN leaving to go another MONTH to King’s Landing. It was Euron’s baby plain and simple. He knew it too I believe.

  20. Mina says:

    “If only they had insisted on a full ten-episode season”

    Quick reminder here that it was D&D who didn’t want a full season. HBO wanted Season 7 and 8 to be 10 episodes each, and they insisted they had it all outlined to wrap up in just 13 episodes. So that’s on them too!

  21. Mrs.Krabapple says:

    I think the loss of her baby was implied in her final scene with Tyrion on the walls of King’s Landing. Tryion tries to sway Cersie with talk about the baby, but right after that is when Cersie orders Missandei executed. You can see it in Lena Headley’s face (she is a great actor!) that Cersie wasn’t just thinking about the coming battle, but *something* else about her unborn baby was upsetting her. And, it would be consistent with Tyrion yet again thinking he had some kind of “inside knowledge” of Cersie that actually backfires.

    The whole season 8 was crap. I can’t remember anything that I liked about it, other than the visuals of the dragon burning down King’s Landing. All major characters were ruined. The wheel goes on as always, with idiots ruling various lands just because of their birth, and the biggest villain turned out to be Bran. W.T.F.

  22. The Recluse says:

    Those showrunners did the viewers a tremendous disservice. They bum rushed the end and sacrificed quality. I am still ticked off about so much, Daenyris especially. I think they forced her character’s evolution/devolution? into a mad queen.

  23. weezle says:

    Please just give me books 6 & 7!!!

  24. cas says:

    I thought the last two seasons were appallingly written but I’m not sure the show runners are to blame. They signed on to adapt books, so what were they to do when the remaining books didn’t appear? Martin produced the first three books pretty quickly so D and D must have assumed that the following books would appear in time. The books are still not done!! Ultimately, it’s Martin’s fault because he didn’t keep his end of the bargain.