Game of Thrones director Jeremy Podeswa, the man who helmed the Game of Thrones season seven premiere, has a message: Leave Ed Sheeran alone! Well, he didn't say that specifically.
Speaking with Newsweek, the Emmy-nominated director said he thought the sing, "did a lovely job."
In the Game of Thrones season seven premiere, Sheeran appears in a scene with Maisie Williams' Arya Stark. She comes upon him and a band of soldiers camping and he sings, then they offer her food and drink.
"For years, we tried to get Ed Sheeran on the show to surprise Maisie, and this year we finally did it," Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff said at a SXSW panel in March.
After his appearance, the internet lit up with criticism (and praise), but Sheeran deleted his Twitter account...sort of. It came back.
"He was appropriate for the part because he needed to sing. If people didn't know who Ed was, they wouldn't have thought about it twice. The hoo-ha seems to be from things that are outside of the world of the show. In the world of the show he did a lovely job, and he looks like he belongs in that world," Podeswa said.
According to the director, viewers "interrogated it too much" and brought "so much of his [superstar] presence into the thing which is far beyond what anybody was thinking going into it."
"He is known to the producers of the show and some of the cast, and he's a gigantic fan of the show. As everybody knows, the show really eschews stunt casting—it's never, ever done that," he said.
Game of Thrones has had other musicians appear before. Other cameos include Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody, Will Champion from Coldplay, Sigur Rós, and Mastodon, yet none of those sparked as much conversation as Sheeran's.
"I was quite surprised about the reaction actually because I know he's very well known and a successful singer but you're in the bubble of the show—the cast are well known too, everybody is really well known...none of them can walk down the street without being followed. You don't think about that very much in this context," Podeswa said.
Sheeran previously recurred on FX's The Bastard Executioner and has played himself in an episode of NBC's Undateable and Bridget Jones' Baby.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Podeswa said he thought Sheeran "fit right into the world" of Game of Thrones. "He could not be more kind. He just wanted to do a good job. He was very cute. The only thing he asked is if he could change the key of the song he was singing, and he asked it very tentatively," he said. "He wanted to do a good job and was very concerned about that. He hung out with everybody on set all day, with all of the other guys sitting around the campfire. He was a team player. I swear to God, he was really just like one of the guys. He was lovely."
The next episode of Game of Thrones season airs Sunday, July 23 at 9 p.m. on HBO. Titled "Stormborn," this is what HBO says happens: "Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) receives an unexpected visitor. Jon (Kit Harington) faces a revolt. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) plans the conquest of Westeros." Bryan Cogman directed the episode with a script from Mark Mylod.