Maisie Williams Thought Arya Was Queer on ‘Game of Thrones’: ‘I Was Surprised’ She Had Sex With a Man

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Maisie Williams told Teen Vogue that playing Arya Stark on HBO’s long-running fantasy series “Game of Thrones” never shocked her until the final season, when the writers decided to have Arya consummate her relationship with Gendry Baratheon.

Williams had long been under the assumption that Arya identified as queer. The character has sex with Gendry in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the second episode of the show’s eighth and final season.“The first time that I was surprised by Arya I guess was probably in the final series where she whips off her clothes and sleeps with Gendry,” Maisie said during a “Teen Vogue Firsts” video interview. “I thought that Arya was queer, you know?

So … yeah. That was a surprise.” Many “Game of Thrones” viewers also assumed Arya was a queer character, which led to backlash against the decision to have her sleep with a man (Arya could still identify as bisexual, of course).

Williams told Entertainment Weekly in 2019 that she thought the series’ creators were pranking her when she first read the script in which Arya and Gendry have sex. “Game of Thrones“ showrunners David Benioff and D.B.