Maisie Williams teases Arya Stark's journey in Game of Thrones season 6

by Daniel Falconer | 6 April 2016

There's just a few weeks left to wait before Game of Thrones returns for its sixth season on HBO, and in a new interview with EW, actor Maisie Williams spoke a little bit about her character, Arya Stark's journey in the forthcoming episodes.

Credit: HBO

She explained: "People don't realise last season Arya went blind. Last season people asked: 'Is she dead?' I'm all, 'No, she's blind.' It's too easy to kill her. If there's one thing we've learned from Game of Thrones it's that death is the easy way out. They're gonna keep her and make her have a [bad] time. Look at Reek.

"I was so up for the contacts. I love having something weird going on on the set. There's never a day where I just sat and did dialogue, there's always something going on."

Viewers who may be hoping for writers to ease up a little bit on Arya going forward because of her condition may be a little disappointed.

Williams continued: "I feel like I got a good one this time: Arya is being more physical again, but she's blind. So her training has progressed even more, but it's on a more physical level and a more technical level because she's lost her eyes. And I love doing stunts. I'm so happy I've got some again.

"Last year, people have been like, 'Arya's sweeping floors!' And everything I tweet, they're like, 'Oysters, clams and cockles!' It's part of the training, okay? It's what goes into that. And this year there is more of that, but it's also more exciting."

She added: "Every year I think, 'This is really cool.' But this year, as I opened the scripts, it's so exciting because nobody knows what's happening. They're going to hate it, but love it, and I can't wait."

Giving her final thoughts on season 6, she said: "This year is so great because we've whittled it down. You can see the final storylines forming. We lost a lot of people last year and that makes it really exciting. There are fewer people on Arya's list. But there's also fewer people to fight for the throne."

Game of Thrones season 6 returns to HBO in the US on April 24, simulcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic and shown in the UK on the same channel, Mondays at 9pm.