Kit Harington Lied To Co-Stars, Not Just Fans, About Jon Snow’s Fate
At the end of Game of Thrones Season 5, fans were devastated to see Jon Snow, played by Kit Harington, stabbed to death. Another beloved character had been killed off in the series, and fans were in disbelief over what happened. Soon after, however, fans calmed down by convincing themselves that Jon Snow’s death is not the end for him.
In October 2015, Kit Harington was spotted in Belfast where the cast and crew were filming for Season 6 of Game of Thrones. Still, Harington insisted that he wouldn’t be back in the series, at least not as a living person.
On April 24, the sixth season of Game of Thrones premiered on HBO, and on the first episode, Jon Snow was still dead. That all changed, however, on Episode 2, entitled “Home.” After the episode, fans’ theories were confirmed, and Jon Snow was brought back to life by Melisandre.
Kit Harington Lied To ‘Game Of Thrones’ Cast About Jon Snow’s Fate (SPOILERS) https://t.co/d03gb1Osyx
— Gossip Cop (@GossipCop) May 4, 2016
Dan Weiss and David Benioff, Game of Thrones‘ showrunners, swore Harington to secrecy as far back as the summer of 2014 regarding the fate of Jon Snow. This includes keeping the secret from other actors in the show as well.
Jeremy Podeswa, who directed the first two episodes of Game of Thrones Season 6, talked about hiding the secret from everyone in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“As much as people were asking me and everybody else on the show constantly if Jon Snow is alive or dead, I think really in their heart of hearts they didn’t actually want to know. For us, it felt very important to maintain that secrecy for the fans, and we worked very hard to make sure that worked out.”
Now, Kit Harington is talking about how he kept the secret from everyone, including his beloved co-stars, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
“At first I thought I would find it fun. This will be a fun game. But I had to lie to a lot of close friends and cast members and crew. The longer it went, the more I felt like I was betraying them.”
To keep the secret under wraps, Jon Snow’s name was left out of scripts, notes, and other items on set. The name could not even be said out loud. Instead, everyone had to refer to the character as “LC,” short for Lord Commander.
Kit Harington’s off-camera acting was so convincing that actress Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, gave Harington a heartwarming letter upon hearing that he was leaving the show.
“Sophie Turner, bless her, wrote me a really long letter about how much she loved working with me — and I’ve still got it. That made me chuckle.”
According to Mashable, however, one actor, Liam Cunningham who plays Ser Davos Seaworth, did not believe him and told him to “f**k off.”
The cast only learned that Jon Snow would be coming back when the scripts for Season 6 were released to them last summer.
After the episode of Game of Thrones where Jon Snow was resurrected aired, Kit Harington sheepishly offered an apology to his fans.
“Sorry! I’d like to say sorry for lying to everyone. I’m glad that people were upset that he died. I think my biggest fear was that people were not going to care. Or it would just be, ‘Fine, Jon Snow’s dead.’ But it seems like people had a, similar to the Red Wedding episode, kind of grief about it. Which means something I’m doing — or the show is doing — is right.”
Maisie Williams, who plays Aria Stark, posted a tweet after the latest episode.
Trolled u :3
— Maisie Williams (@Maisie_Williams) May 2, 2016
Kit Harington shares more about Jon Snow’s journey from death to resurrection on this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly.
It turns out, Jon Snow knows something after all.
[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images]
