It is the goal of every actor to remain in a series for as long as they can, especially if that series is as successful as HBO's "Game of Thrones."
This is why Ian McElhinney, the actor who portrayed Ser Barristan Selmy, one of Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke) most faithful allies was pretty torn apart when he was killed off during season five.
During an interview with Express UK, the actor said he was "truthfully miffed" about being killed off, especially since his character managed to survive in George R.R. Martin's books.
"Unfortunately I'd read the books, so I had expectations for season five," he said.
When he read his script and schedule for the past season, he knew something was not right for his character.
"As soon as I got the schedule I thought, 'There's something not here' because I thought I'd be doing more scenes, in fact I was doing less. So immediately I thought, 'They must be writing me out,'" he shared.
McElhinney then approached show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss about his character's future in the show, and the two confirmed that he would be departing from the show and won't make it until season six.
"If I'm honest, I was a bit disappointed by that. I felt I should have known, it wouldn't have made any difference but I felt that as a matter of just courtesy, I should have known," he said. "I was disappointed because I had enjoyed playing the part and I was looking forward to getting more meat in the part and I had to dared to presume that I would at least go into season six."
The actor really seemed to take to heart the death of his character, and he further said: "I obviously shouldn't have dared to presume. So be it. The deed is done and I'm on to other things and that's that. But I do miss it. I would have happily stayed on."
Still, McElhinney is happy that he went out with a bang. The battle scene Ser Barristan and Greyworm had with the Sons of the Harpy was the most exciting scene he ever had to do for the show.
"Adrenaline, swords, you just get off on it. Although it was challenging it was actually kind of exciting but that scene all the harpies - every single one of them - were stunt men," he said. "I was jumping at the fact that I did the whole thing myself - some people have a stunt man stand-in - but I didn't have one and didn't want one."
