Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has revealed his one hope following his character's controversial ending.

While Jaime Lannister failed to make it out of the HBO series alive, things could have ended very differently had he decided to stay in Winterfell with Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie).

Instead, he opted to return to King's Landing and ended up dying while holding his sister and lover Cersei (Lena Headey) as the walls of the Red Keep caved in around them.

Their death scene was met with criticism from fans who felt that the characters should have been handed a more memorable ending.

Coster-Waldau, though, feels very differently. "The whole world is falling down around them – it's a poetic thing," he told the Making Game of Thrones website.

"When we were done filming, it was so emotional – more so than my last scene. My hope for those final moments between Cersei and Jaime, is that even though people want her dead, it still leaves a sour taste in their mouth."

Following the finale, HBO broadcast behind-the-scenes documentary The Last Watch, which showed the precise moment the cast discovered Arya would kill the Night King.

Read our review of the Game of Thrones finale here. You can find our ranking of every character – from worst to best – here.