Ed Sheeran Will Make a Guest Appearance on Upcoming Season of ‘Game of Thrones’

Here’s some news that seems like it might come from one of those many Onion rip-offs that aren’t quite as clever as the real thing.

Ed Sheeran will make a guest appearance in an episode of Game of Thrones during the show’s upcoming seventh season. Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss made the announcement at the SXSW film festival in Austin, Texas on Sunday. In case, for whatever reason, you don’t believe those two, Sheeran also appeared to confirm it from his Twitter account:

It’s unclear just what role he’ll be playing, but it was heavily implied at SXSW that Sheeran was booked because show star Maisie Williams is such a big fan. “For years we were trying to get Ed Sheeran on the show to surprise Maisie,” said Benioff. “And this year we finally did it.”

Okay, guess that’s more than implied.

As noted by the BBC, Sheeran isn’t nearly the first musical star to appear on the show, following in the footsteps of members of Coldplay, Snow Patrol, Sigur Ros, Mastodon, and Of Monsters and Men.

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As for Weiss, he thinks that Sheeran’s initial enthusiasm may wane after he realizes, like past guest musicians, how much it sucks to film a TV show. “A lot of [music artists] say they would they would like to [be on the show], and then we tell them [shooting a scene] is so boring,” Weiss relayed. “‘You’re gonna hate this — you’re going to be sitting around three days for 12 hours a day.'” He also noted that past musicians, such as Sigur Ros lead singer Jónsi Birgisson, wanted to leave prematurely, before realizing he had to stick around for several more days. However he added of Birgisson “He was a super good sport about it.”

Season seven will premiere on Sunday, July 16. Depending on your feelings about Sheeran, root for him his character to reign or die accordingly.