SPOILERS AHEAD.
Josh already covered this to an extent in his recap; however, immediately after Sunday night’s finale of Game of Thrones, Entertainment Weekly released an interview with Kit Harington in which he says that Jon Snow unequivocally, unambiguously, is dead. Except… he’s totally not, right?
For context, here’s the full excerpt:
I was talking to Dan Weiss and he said Jon is really dead. But George R.R. Martin left open the possibility the character might not be dead in the books. And then that cast salary contract story came out last year and it had your name among those receiving raises for season six and an option on a seventh. So let me ask you: Is Jon really dead?
This is my understanding of it. I had a sit-down with Dan and David, we did the Tony Soprano walk (letting an actor know they’re being whacked). And they said, “Look, you’re gone, it’s done.” And as far as the salary thing goes, that angered me when that story came out. I don’t know where it came from, but it was inaccurate in many ways. It’s going to put questions into your head and into fans’ heads that things are not what they are. Quite honestly, I have never been told the future of things in this show, but this is the one time I have. They sat me down and said, “This is how it is.” If anything in the future is not like that, then I don’t know about it – it’s only in David and Dan and George’s heads. But I’ve been told I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m not coming back next season. So that’s all I can tell you, really.
So, let’s break this down: In the “evidence of Jon Snow actually being dead” camp, we have basically just the verbal confirmation of the showrunners, apparently, and Harington himself, or at least what he’s been told. Although, language like “this is my understanding of it,” doesn’t sound totally confident to me. Also, Harington cut off his hair shortly after the interview was conducted, which was previously forbidden by HBO.
As for the Jon Snow not being dead camp, Josh mentioned a couple of possibilities of bringing him back — assuming that, for the time being, the character is at least temporarily dead — either by warging into Ghost or by Melisandre reviving him. In the Game of Thrones universe where “no one is safe from death,” it seems like there are a handful of characters who actually are safe from death, and it’s to be assumed that the entire series will eventually hinge on them: Daenerys, Tyrion, Arya, and yes, Jon Snow.
And if Jon Snow is really gone, what about the heavily implied R+L=J theory? Was that all just a MacGuffin this entire time? What purpose would it serve if he was really gone? I just can’t let myself believe that. Either way, we’ll have to wait til next season to find out, unless Jon Snow is just temporarily sent to exile with Bran, who will almost definitely be sporting a Justin Bieber dirtstache when he finally returns.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
