SPOILER ALERT: Spoilers ahead from the Hobbs and Shaw movie, and also the Game of Thrones finale.
Watching Hobbs and Shaw would be a helluva way to learn how Game of Thrones ends. So if you happen to have been waiting to binge the final season -- or the whole HBO series -- be warned. Ryan Reynolds is going to ruin it for you.
Yes, Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds has a cameo, or really more than a cameo, as CIA agent Locke in Hobbs and Shaw, and Locke is one of the many disgruntled Game of Thrones fans.
It may sound random to be adding Game of Thrones spoilers to a Fast and Furious spinoff, and it really is. Apparently it's all due to Ryan Reynolds. His Locke makes repeated references to Game of Thrones, including when he sits down with Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and they share a "You know nothing, Jon Snow" reference.
Here's what director David Leitch told RadioTimes.com about the Game of Thrones references:
That’s Ryan’s twisted brain I think. When I asked him to do the scene in the Pancake House [at the beginning of the film] and to be this character Locke who gives the exposition of the virus, I asked him to help jazz it up. Ryan always has a lot of great ideas, and he wanted to riff on Game of Thrones, obviously it’s in the pop zeitgeist and it’s such an iconic show, and he’s like ‘let’s go after Game of Thrones for fun.'
Hey, millions of petition signers can't be wrong to go after Game of Thrones, right? (Don't answer that.)
Director David Leitch also credited Ryan Reynolds for coming up with the big Game of Thrones spoiler that Hobbs and Shaw used as one of the many post-credits scenes.
In the mid-credits scene, Hobbs and Locke are on the phone to talk about a powerful virus being developed -- a hint to a sequel -- and that's when Ryan Reynolds' Locke takes a moment to spoil how things end for Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). What's Locke's problem? That Jon Snow fucked his aunt, then killed her, and no one wants to talk about it!
(My dude, I will totally talk about it with you. I'm just as upset.)
David Leitch explained why they decided to use that Jon/Dany finale scene as a joke just two-and-a-half months after the Game of Thrones finale aired on May 19, 2019.
When we finished editing the movie and we brought him back for the coda, we were looking at things we could sort of dredge up from the original scene and what could be paid off, and that was one of them and he said, 'Let’s find some Game of Thrones stuff.’ And by that time, the finale had come out, and it just felt like the right joke at the right time.
Yeah, most people have probably either seen the Game of Thrones ending or just heard about it by now. It's still funny, though, and very Deadpool of Ryan Reynolds to pepper timely pop culture references into a movie.
Hobbs and Shaw is now playing in theaters, getting very high audience scores from fans and an A- CinemaScore. It looks like it could make a good amount of money. Keep up with everything heading to the big screen this year with our 2019 movie release schedule.
