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WARNING: Spoilers for Game of Thrones season eight, episode five
The penultimate episode of Game of Thrones, titled “The Bells”, featured a brief cameo from one of the NFL’s top players, Aaron Rodgers .
Fans appear to have spotted the player disguised as an archer for the Golden Company, standing in support of Cersei Lannister at King’s Landing,
Rodgers had already confirmed that he would feature in the fifth episode of Game of Thrones ‘s final season.
Following episode two, he tweeted a warning about spoilers, writing: “24 hour rule still applies folks, for all those who thought there were better things to do tonight than watch.” However, he snuck in the hashtag ”#episode5shouldbegood” to tease fans about his upcoming appearance.
Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to bestShow all 8 1 /8Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 8. Ed Sheeran (season 7) One of the worst celebrity cameos to happen on TV, ever. Ed Sheeran announced he had a cameo in season seven a long while before the episode actually aired and actually revealed the line of dialogue he had – terrible etiquette when it comes to a show whose fans detest spoilers. To be fair, it wasn’t really Ed’s fault. Maybe showrunners were giddy at having such a major star on set, but they did little or nothing to disguise the fact that, yes, that’s Ed Sheeran sitting at a campfire with some Lannister soldiers. Ed was also unable to disguise his glee at being on the show, so for the whole appearance he had a weird smile on his face, which looked weird, considering the entire world was at war – and until then Lannister soldiers weren’t particularly known for their sense of humour. It was so bad that Kristian Nairn – who plays Hodor – even called the cameo “stupid” and criticised the showrunners for the “snap to reality” it caused for the audience.
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Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 7. Coldplay's Will Champion (season 3) Coldplay’s Will Champion was spotted in one of the most shocking scenes in Game of Thrones: the Red Wedding. Champion played a drummer at Edmure Tully’s ill-fated gathering in “The Rains of Castamere”. Arguably Champion was a little too enthusiastic in a scene that was already full of foreboding, given the tense relationship between the Tullys and the Starks. His beard was also perhaps a little too modern compared to the grizzly facial hair sported by most Game of Thrones extras.
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Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 6. Bastille (season 7) Bastille filmed a cameo scene for season seven of Game of Thrones in Belfast, where they got to have a tour of the set, and ended up as wights. You can spot a very brief glimpse of guitarist Kyle Simmons and their tour manager Dick Meredith during the sinister march towards the Wall in the final episode of the season – unfortunately the others got cut from the final edit.
@bastilledan / Twitter
Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 5. Of Monsters and Men (season six) Of Monsters and Men managed to avoid any bloodshed and made a perfectly lovely appearance as the band accompanying a theatre troupe in season six. The band later revealed that they had been begging to be on the show for years, before finally scoring the gig.
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Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 4. Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody (season 1) The best Game of Thrones music cameos tend to be the ones that are so subtle that you have to go back and watch them again to check it really happened. Such was the case for Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, who was the first musician to get a cameo and who was also the most easy to miss. He appeared as a Bolton soldier, who sings “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” (written by George RR Martin in the original book series), as the patrol make their way through the woods.
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Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 3. Sigur Ros (season 4) The Icelandic band were lucky to escape with their lives after failing to impress King Joffrey during their performance for his wedding to Margaery Tyrell at King’s Landing. Fortunately Joffrey was a bit occupied with choking on his own vomit after having some very nasty poison slipped into his wine.
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Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 2. Dr Feelgood's Wilko Johnson Technically, this probably doesn’t qualify as a cameo given Wilko Johnson’s stint as the mute royal executioner Ser Ilyn Payne took place over several episiodes in seasons one and two. But he was so brilliant it’s impossible not to mention him – particularly for the scene where he stares blankly at a young Sansa Stark before being shooed away by The Hound.
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Game of Thrones music cameos, ranked worst to best 1. Mastodon (seasons 5 and 7) The American metal band did a great job as wildlings (it helped that they were already really hairy) in season five, for the episode "Hardhome". After being brutally slaughtered during a terrifying attack on the wildlings by a horde of wights, Mastodon were brought back to life as White Walkers, which Brann Dailor described as "beyond amazing". Their cameo went down so well with fans that they were invited back to play wights again in the season seven finale.
The Green Bay Packers also tweeted right before episode five started, asking fans: “So what’s everyone watching tonight?”
Country singer Chris Stapleton previously made a cameo in episode three , playing one of the Wildings who were transformed into wights. Episode five also featured Line of Duty star Laura Elphinstone .
You can read our review of the episode here .
Both Lena Headey, who plays Cersei , and Conleth Hill, who plays Varys , have spoken about the fates of their characters.
The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK .
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