Over the past seven seasons of Game of Thrones, Sansa Stark has gone from a naïve and dutiful young girl obsessed with fairytale romances, to the respected and highly-intelligent Lady of Winterfell.

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“She’s the smartest person I’ve ever met,” Arya said of Sansa to Jon Snow during last week's season eight premiere.

So it's little wonder that when asked which Game of Thrones character had changed the most over the course of the series, showrunner David Benioff named Sansa (played by Sophie Turner).

"She started out so naïve and was forced to undergo the most brutal possible education into the world but emerged from it and became this powerful figure and kind of against all odds," Benioff told Entertainment Weekly.

Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark (YouTube)

"I don’t think too many people watching the first season had any expectation that Sansa would become the woman that she became. And part of that is the story and part of that is Sophie Turner and the phenom she turned out to be as an actress.

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"We knew when we cast Sophie that she was this really good child actor but we had no idea she’d become the force that’s she’s become.

"So if I had to pick one [character], I’d pick Sansa."

A wise choice from Benioff — although no doubt Jaime Lannister's transformation from most-hated-man-in-Westeros to beloved one-handed hero gave Sansa a run for a money. And let's not even start on her brother Bran...

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Game of Thrones airs on Sky Atlantic and NOWTV on Mondays at 2am and 9pm

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