Sean Bean as Ned Stark in Game of Thrones.
* This story contains spoilers
Sean Bean has admitted that he was "glad" when he heard about Joffrey's death in Game of Thrones.
The 55-year-old British actor, who starred as Ned Stark in the first season of the show and ended up getting beheaded by the sadistic boy-king, spoke of his satisfaction at the conclusion of the Purple Wedding.
The episode culminated in Joffrey, played by Jack Gleeson, dying grotesquely after he was mysteriously poisoned at his own wedding party.
"He [Gleeson] was brilliant, that kid. He's a fantastic actor, and he really got people's backs up, which, I guess that's what was required of the character," Bean told entertainment news programme Access Hollywood at WonderCon last week.
Although Bean did not see the episode himself, he said that was he was pleased, jokingly adding, "But, what can I say? I'm glad he's dead - he killed me."
He went onto say: "We never really thought that it would turn into the thing that it was but I'm very proud to be associated with it. I'm glad I kick-started it."
Ned Stark's unexpected demise was the first big twist on Game of Thrones and was the start of a tradition of shocking deaths on the show.
Last year's Red Wedding saw the murders of several more members of the Stark family and left many fans in mourning.
From James Bond to Lord of the Rings, Bean is notorious for playing characters that meet a sticky end, so much so that fans have made YouTube videos documenting each onscreen death.
The star was at the comic book convention, WonderCon, last Saturday to promote his new television series Legends.
Bean plays Martin Odum, a deep undercover FBI agent who assumes different identities or "legends".
The programme has been produced by Howard Gordon, who has worked on Homeland and 24 but it's not yet known whether Bean's character in the spy drama will also die at some point.
- Independent
The Australian site cited a 'heightened threat level' as the issue.