Game Of Thrones fans are still not coping very well with what happened to poor, handsome Jon Snow at the end of the last season, and are clinging on to any possible shred of hope that he will return to the show in some form or other.
Last week, HBO’s ‘Honor The Fallen’ toy sale sent internet conspiracy theorists into a state of near-meltdown, after somebody noticed that the characters for sale, including many dead Thrones favourites, did NOT number Snow amongst them.
This, coupled with Kit Harrington‘s hair and beard situation, led many to believe that he would indeed be returning for the show’s upcoming sixth season.
Because Thrones and HBO like to kill everything you love, though, network executive Michael Lombardino gave a fairly unambiguous assessment of Snow’s fate at a recent Television Critics Association press conference.
His exact words:
“Dead is dead is dead. He be dead. Yes. Everything I’ve seen, heard and read, he is dead.”
But but but but but …. Avid fans are currently looking for semantic loopholes in that statement, pointing out that, while Snow is dead now, he won’t necessarily remain that way.
Jon Snow is dead. It doesn’t mean he’ll stay that way, however. pic.twitter.com/8lb4eBvRBa
— Jace Lacob (@televisionary) July 30, 2015
While it remains to be seen whether Harrington returns for another go-around, Lombardino said that Thrones, currently shooting its sixth season, will likely stick around for two more afterwards, bringing the total to eight.
Given that the show is massively popular and profitable, though, HBO are open to milking that udder dry making the most of it via a Fear The Walking Dead-style prequel.
While Dan Benioff and David Weiss have not yet spoken about a prequel as such, top executives are “open” to it.
