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Jon Snow Is Alive In ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season Six

By Sean Donnelly
Published on: 21:09 PST, Nov 23, 2015

Jon Snow fans can rest easy after HBO, makers of the hit television series Game of Thrones, appeared to confirm that the character will feature in season six, which is set to premier in April.

HBO’s official Twitter account today posted an image of Jon Snow actor Kit Harrington looking bloodied and beaten but apparently unbowed, captioned with the word “April” in what has been widely perceived as confirmation of the fact that the character has a role to play in season six.

Jon lovers had long been anxious regarding the fate of their favorite character after he appeared to have been killed off in the last episode of season five, “Mother’s Mercy”. The season concluded with Jon being tricked into leaving Castle Black by Olly (Brenock O’Connor), who told him that a wildling had recently seen his uncle, Benjen Stark.

Once outside, however, Jon was met only by Ser Alliser (Owen Teale), Bowen Marsh (Michael Condron) and a group of men wielding a post emblazoned with the word “traitor.” As soon as Snow realized that he had been betrayed, the assailants began to take turns in stabbing him, each stating “For the Watch” as they did so. The episode ended with Jon bleeding to death on his own in the snow.

So why the uncertainty regarding his fate? It seemed pretty cut and dried, didn’t it?

Well, things are rarely straightforward in the world of Game of Thrones, and it was not long before Jon fans, reluctant to accept the death of the popular character, began to speculate that he may well reappear in season six.

Vulture‘s Nate Jones, for instance, argued that Jon’s death lay outside of the dramatic context of the series, owing to the fact that it occurred in the middle of a plot arc and lacked narrative resolution.

“[I]t’s easy to see what [other characters’] deaths meant for the series’ sprawling narrative: Ned’s execution sent the Stark kids adrift in a universe where there was nobody looking out for them, while Robb’s murder was the final death knell for the hopes that the saga would ever have a traditional ‘happy’ ending. What would be accomplished, narratively, by getting rid of Jon permanently right now?”

More esoterically, other fans promulgated narrative twists that Game of Thrones writers might employ in order to revive the Jon character. Two popular explanations followed that Jon Snow may spiritually possess his direwolf’s body or that he might be brought back to life by Melisandre.

All such attempts to deny the character’s death ran counter to public statements made by the series creators, David Benioff and Daniel Brett Weiss. Indeed, Weiss told Entertainment Weekly that the production team made an effort to present Jon Snow’s death in an entirely “unambiguous” fashion owing to the restrictions placed on them by the televisual medium.

“In a book, you can present that kind of ambiguity. In a show, everybody sees it for what it is. It’s that rule: ‘If don’t see the body then they’re not really dead.’ Like when we cut Ned’s head off, we didn’t want a gory Monty Python geyser of blood, but we needed to see the blade enter his neck and cut out on the frame where the blade was mid-neck. […] we needed Ned’s death to be totally unambiguous…It should be pretty clear what happens in by the time you’re done seeing that scene. It’s not an, ‘Oh what just happened scene?'”

Kit Harington was similarly conclusive when Entertainment Weekly asked him if Jon Snow is 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’… 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.”

However, sightings of Harrington near the Game of Thrones set in Belfast, Northern Ireland in July fueled speculation that the character could be set for a return and HBO’s Twitter post appears to confirm the fact that he will be present in season six.

But before getting too excited about the resurrection of Jon Snow, it is worth remembering that similar excitement surrounded a possible revival for the Tywin Lannister character after actor Charles Dance was spotted in Belfast in 2014, and he was only seen as a corpse in season five.

Until April, the fate of Jon Snow will remain a mystery.

[Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images]

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