As Game Of Thrones barrels its way towards the end of an eventful seventh season, fans on Reddit think they have figured out the identity of an actor who might play a small but important role in episodes to come. The man in question is Welsh actor Wilf Scolding, and based on his social media history, as well as certain information from HBO, fans have a pretty good idea that he’ll be playing Rhaegar Targaryen, otherwise known as Jon Snow’s dad.
Take a look at Scolding’s chiselled features in a recent Instagram post, and then we’ll talk.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BViCEykAJyh/
Rhaegar Targaryen, who died before the events of the series commenced, is the brother of Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen and the husband of the late Elia Martell, and as we found out at the end of season six, he also fathered Jon Snow with Lyanna Stark.
Rhaegar was killed in the Battle Of The Trident, while Lyanna died in childbirth, entrusting her infant son to her brother Ned Stark at the Tower Of Joy. In case there was any confusion, HBO released a graphic at the end of season six, clearing up the various complicated relationships, and Snow’s parentage:
All of this brings us back to Wilf Scolding. A Reddit sleuth noticed that last September, right around the time when the new season of Thrones would have been filming, Scolding was followed on Twitter by Aisling Franciosi, the actress who plays Lyanna.
Wilf followed her back, while also following the official Thrones account, and actor Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, suggesting that some combination of these people may have hung out and filmed a scene or scenes together.
Scolding has replied to Thrones fans on Twitter, and posted a cheeky photo of himself in a wig when one of them asked about his casting, but he has since deleted the Tweets, which seems a tiny bit suspicious. There’s also a rumour that his name appears in leaked HBO documents, but we’re unable to confirm that one.
It is currently understood that Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and hid her away in Dorne, although what happened then remains unclear, and it has been speculated that Scolding and Franciosi may appear together in a scene that shows the two characters getting married.
If this is the case, it would shed a new light on their relationship, and it would also give Jon Snow a pretty strong claim to the Iron Throne, potentially bringing him into conflict with Daenerys (we’re really hoping that he doesn’t hook up with her in the interim, what with them being related and all).
Once again, we stress that all of this is just rumour, and it could all turn out to be bullshit. We have no idea if we’ll even get to see the character of Rhaegar Targaryen this season, let alone find out what actually happened between him and Lyanna Stark. We’ll continue fiending for any tiny scrap of information until then.
