Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow in the HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones – admitted what fans of the show have long known and that he has returned to set to film scenes for the new season, but insisted that the character is still dead.
“I filmed some scenes of me being dead – it’s some of my best work,” he told Time Out.
“I know how long I’m a corpse for, but I can’t tell you that!” he added.
Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – who plays Jamie Lannister – has become the latest inhabitant of Westeros to repeat the news that Kit Harington’s hunky character is actually dead. “Listen, he was stabbed 50 times in the heart. He’s dead,” he told Jimmy Kimmel.
But the actor also gave a little hint of what’s to come, adding: “At the end of season five, he was dead. He was stabbed 50 times in the heart; you know he’s not moving he’s out cold. He’s gone.”
Actress Natalie Dormer has also confirmed that the character is dead – but teased that his cadaverous state might not last forever. The 34-year-old actress, who plays Margaery Tyrell in the show, said even Snow cannot defy human physiology.
She told Channel 5 News: “If you get stabbed that many times, you’re dead, you know. There are some basic medical rules that even apply in Westeros.
“So Jon Snow is dead right now.”
Pushed on her choice of the phrase “right now”, she repeated emphatically, “right now”.
With Harington’s character’s death confirmed, the question on fans’ lips is whether he stays that way, and sightings of him on set in Ireland point to a return.
Dormer added that this series will be the most unpredictable yet as it is the first that will overtake the source text, George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
“You can never predict Game of Thrones. And of course we have the new situation this year which is completely unprecedented that George hasn’t published the next book so it is new for everyone.”
Instead of being fatigued by the constant rumours of whether Snow is back, Dormer said she “loves all the theories people have”.
Game of Thrones season six returns on April 24 on HBO.