The Emmy-winning actor wrapped up his time in Westeros in 2019, but he hasn’t left the HBO show behind.

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Five years past Game of Thrones, Westeros’ current hot topic is George R.R. Martin’s beef with House of the Dragon season two—and Thrones has become a show that most people remember fondly with one big black mark: basically all of season eight, capped by that disappointing series finale. While Peter Dinklage, the show’s most-awarded star (including four Emmys and a Golden Globe), is glad Thrones ended when it did, he’s also got no trouble sticking by the fact that he likes the finale. He really likes it!

Speaking to Rolling Stone, he offered a good-natured defense of his take. “I like the finale! You don’t have to agree with me,” he said. “How about if I said like, ‘Yeah, I agree. I hated the finale. The whole last season was horrible’?  I mean, that would sit much worse than if I said I loved it, which I did. I can’t speak for anybody else’s opinion, and that’s what makes what we do fun, because everybody does have a difference of opinion and everybody gets to write about it and chat about it and drink over it and argue about it. It’s great. I mean, I think it means you’re doing something right.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Dinklage weighed in on what it’s like still being asked about something that’s been over for years at this point (“It would be very difficult if I wasn’t proud of that show, but I happen to be insanely proud of that show. I love that character”) and what it was like moving on from such a popular and high-profile series. “It was sad [when Game of Thrones ended], but I didn’t really have anxiety, because at that point we were all ready to move on … creatively, it was a good time for everybody to move on from it.”

Rolling Stone also poked Dinklage about another project fans have been dying for an update on: Toxic Avenger. Although the star didn’t have any fresh intel on when or if the movie—which screened at a few festivals in 2023 then vanished from sight—might find a release (“it’s out of my hands … it’s with the companies and what they choose do with it”), he hasn’t given up hope that it will still happen.

“It’s such a great movie. I saw a rough cut of it. I absolutely loved it. It’s so original, even though it’s a spin on an old ’80s cult movie. It’s so much fun and it’s over-the-top violence … You work so hard on something, especially with good friends, and you don’t know what the fate of it’s gonna be. But I guess you just gotta move on. Hopefully it will be released. I hope so.”