The highly anticipated final season of Game of Thrones is almost upon us.

I know you’ve seen it already, but you can rewatch the final trailer here.

The show is infamous for its radical turnover of characters. Just when you get used to someone, they kill them off.

I mean, we knew it was coming with Sean Bean, but I still haven’t forgiven them for ‘the Red Wedding’.

Through it all, a core cast has managed to outlive the evil scriptwriters and make it all the way to the final six episodes.

Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are, as a result, some of the highest-paid actors in television.

Let’s take a look at how much they get paid for surviving, courtesy of Cosmopolitan.

Kit Harrington

Pay Per Episode: $500 000

Net Worth: $12 million

Kit Harrington was relatively unknown before Game of Thrones so his starting salary wasn’t very high.

Per reports from Deadline, Kit negotiated his per-episode salary to $300,000 right in time for seasons 5 and 6. There were 10 episodes in each season, which means he made up to $6,000,000 in total.

Harrington and his fellow “tier A” cast members then renegotiated with HBO and walked away with $500 000 per episode, which is where we are today.

Lena Heady

Pay Per Episode: $500 000

Net worth: $9 million

Lena Heady is also a core cast member and, like Kit, she negotiated her salary up from $300 000 an episode to $500 000 an episode. A messy divorce emptied her bank account a tad, which is why her net worth is lower.

Peter Dinklage

Pay Per Episode: $500 000

Net Worth: $16 Million

He drinks and he knows things.

Peter Dinklage was part of the same negotiations as Harrington and Heady, hence the salary.

Dinklage also had a major film career before the show, appearing in movies like The Station Agent, Elf, and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Emilia Clarke

Pay Per Episode: $500 000

Net Worth: $13 million

The Mother of Dragons is up there with the other half-a-mil earners.

Emilia confirmed that she was making just as much as her GoT co-stars in a Vanity Fair cover story. The exact (iconic) quote was: “I get f*cking paid the same as my guy friends. We made sure of that.”

And on top of the $12.5-ish million she’s made from HBO, she’s appeared in numerous movies and ad campaigns.

She’s a boss.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau

Pay Per Episode: $500,000

Net Worth: $16 million

Another half-a-mil earner who has combined his earning with those from films like Black Hawk Down to build up impressive net worth.

Don’t ask me how one would pronounce his name, though.

Maisie Williams

Per Episode Salary: $150 000 (estimate)

Net Worth: $6 million

Williams and Turner, below, form part of the “tier B” cast whose salaries have not been released.

Buuuuut Celebrity Net Worth claims Maisie makes $150,000 per episode. Which seems sort of low, TBH?! The good news is that between HBO’s payroll department and movies like The New Mutants, she’s got a reported $6 million in her bank account.

OMG, please excuse the text talk in the quotes. It is Cosmo, after all.

Sophie Turner

Pay Per Episode: unknown

Net Worth: $6 million

Sophie Turner probably earns roughly the same as Maisie Williams, although to be fair, the two of them play enough of a role in the series to be up there with the others.

Aaaaand now you know.

Best not look too closely at your bank balance for a while.

[source:cosmopolitan]