“Jon Snow” has been spotted returning to a major location for Game of Thrones production.
[toggler title=”TL;DR” ]Kit Harrington, the Irish actor who plays Jon Snow in Game of Thrones was spotted in Belfast, a major home for the production of Game of Thrones. Many fans believe that the actor’s return to Northern Ireland proves the theory that Jon Snow is not only NOT officially dead (or is but not for long), but he is the bastard son of Ned Stark’s beloved sister Lyanna Stark and Daenerys’ late brother Rhaegar Targaryen.[/toggler]
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SPOILERS ABOUND. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.
[dropcap size=small]W[/dropcap]hen it comes to being one of the most popular actors on Earth, your presence is constantly watched. Especially if you’re an A-list actor in the immensely popular HBO show, Game of Thrones. Even more so if the character you portrayed last season was killed off suddenly and brutally, with the fans of the show shouting different theories left and right as to how your character could have lived (or be brought back from the dead).
The photo above was taken by the folks at Watchers on the Wall, after Kit Harrington landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland on the same plane as Tom Wlaschiha, who plays the role of Jaqen H’gha a.k.a. the Faceless Man. Fans of the show are ecstatic with the news and while Kit Harrington did say in an interview earlier this year that his character was dead, and yet he technically never confirmed that he wouldn’t be returning for Season 6 of Game of Thrones.
So what does this all mean? For starters, it proves that HBO probably should have flown Kit Harrington into Belfast on a private jet to keep the media from spotting him. But it also proves in some way that Jon Snow will be returning to Game of Thrones for the show’s sixth season. The biggest question on everyone’s mind is how?
The latest season finale for Game of Thrones ended with Jon Snow being stabbed multiple times in the stomach by his fellow brothers in the Night’s Watch. In the final seconds of this episode many fans believe that Jon Snow’s eyes changed from dark brown to purple, a rare but relatively common trait in the Targaryen family. Fans who haven’t been picking up on the hidden clues and messages from this season and past seasons instantly jumped to the conclusion that either Jon Snow is, A) part Targaryen and part Stark or, B) he will turn into a White Walker.
SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE BOOKS
As we all know (well, most of us), Rhaegar Targaryen abducted Lyanna Stark and fled with her to the Tower of Joy. It was here that Ned Stark and several other men found Ser Arthur Dayne (he’s important, but we’ll get to that in a moment) and several of Rhaegar Targaryen’s most trusted Kingsguard members. An intense skirmish began and at the end of it all only two people survived, Ned Stark and Howland Reed (the father of Meera and Jojen). Ned Stark rushes inside the tower to find his sister Lyanna Stark dying, who then requests that Ned Stark promise her something. Whatever it is that Ned Stark promised is unknown at this time, but many fans believe that she requested her brother to keep Jon Snow’s true identity as her and Rhaegar Targaryen’s son a secret (Ned Stark recalls all of this in the books).
Last week HBO announced that Season 6 of Game of Thrones would be filmed in several new locations and HBO has also confirmed that the show will be filming at the Castillo de Zafra in Guadalajara, Spain. If you have read the books then you probably noticed that the Castille de Zafra looks slightly similar to the Tower of Joy from the books because of it’s isolation and size. The Tower of Joy is located in Dorne, and the country of Spain has been serving as a stand-in for Dorne in show since the show’s very beginning. However, it is worth noting that the Tower of Joy was torn down long before the events that transpired in Season 1/Book 1. The Tower of Joy is also described as being round while the Castille de Zafra is closer to the shape of a rectangle.
The location of Castille de Zafra isn’t that big of a deal by itself unless you take into account that Game of Thrones is looking to cast an unnamed “legendary fighter” for the next upcoming season. The dedicated fans over at the Watchers on the Wall said the description for the legendary fighter is:
“A man in his thirties or forties who is a great swordsman and a paragon of knighthood. He carries a hugely famous sword on his back. The show is seeking a very impressive swordsman for the role- the best in Europe, for a week of filming fight scenes for a season 6 role. His ethnicity/race isn’t specified, unlike many other roles.“
The description of this legendary fighter sounds a lot like Ser Arthur Dayne, who is known as the “Sword of the Morning” in the books because he carried around an ancient sword (possibly made of Valyrian steel?) called “Dawn”. The books describe him as a Kingsguard knight who served under the Mad King, and he was one of Rhaegar Targaryen’s closest and most trusted friends. Before he died in the fighting that took place at the Tower of Joy, Ser Arthur Dayne was widely regarded as one of the greatest warriors in all of the Seven Kingdoms.
So why does all of this information matter? If you put the pieces together, and it is slightly far-fetched, it sounds like HBO could be planning a flashback that focuses on the events surrounding the Tower of Joy and what happened there. Taking into account Kit Harrington being spotted in Belfast and HBO announcing that Game of Thrones will be filming at the Castille De Zafra, which is very similar to the Tower of Joy, is it possible that we will finally learn about Ned Stark’s promise to Lyanna Stark and Jon Snow’s birth? Only time will tell.
EDITOR’S NOTE: With all of the above provided, keep in mind that Kit Harrington did say his character “Jon Snow” is dead. Regardless of the outcome with the theories, it is safe to say this is likely true as he could possibly come back as “Jon Targaryen” (or another character with a different name ie “Jon Stark”), making his previous statement true. Kind of like how Obi-Wan told Luke that Darth Vader killed his father. True, but that depends on the point of view.
Game of Thrones begins filming at the end of this month and will air sometime in the spring of 2016.
