It’s hardly news to say there may be trouble in Westeros, but for once the trouble may not be onscreen.
(Slight spoiler alert for this current season of Game of Thrones!)
Alexander Siddig played Prince Doran Martell, the calm patriarch the leads Dorne. Or shall I say led Dorne, as his character was murdered in the premiere episode of season six. Siddig had joined the cast back in 2015 as an occasional appearance (performing in four of ten episodes), but was brought on for his quickly realized death in season six.
According to Indiewire, Siddig was not too upset with his character’s death, but more perturbed by production’s handling of the affair, saying, “I was like, ‘Okay, life goes on.’ But there was something wrong about that because I had been contracted for four episodes in the following season, so if they were going to kill me off at the end of the last season why would they contract me for those four episodes? Because it costs them money whether I do them or not, so it’s not great business sense to do it just in case.”
In that same article Siddig notes that Prince Doran was supposed to be killed at the end of season five instead of season six.
“I know that, from an actor’s point of view, professionally you don’t want to be on a show like that for too long, unless you are one of the top leads who originated the show, because your schedule gets kind of messed up. You don’t earn as much as you would if you were doing another show, because they’re Game of Thrones, and they don’t have to pay anyone. So it’s kind of a blessing in disguise.”
At least Siddig found a silver lining in his dark cloud and gave us another reason to rewatch season six. Rest in peace, Prince Doran, you were the nicest part of Dorne.