‘Game Of Thrones’ Star Kit Harington On Jon Snow’s Return
For Game of Thrones fans, the only thing more talked about than Jon Snow’s death was Jon Snow’s resurrection and, now that it’s all said and done, Kit Harington can finally open up about his character’s death and rebirth. Harington reveals what it was like knowing what was to come on Game of Thrones and not being able to talk about it, not even to his co-stars. Kit also reveals how the experience affected him on a personal level, which, in turn, affected those co-stars who regularly interacted with Jon Snow in Game of Thrones scenes.
Game Of Thrones Star Kit Harington Was Disappointed By Jon Snow’s Return
When Game of Thrones killed of Jon Snow, fans were on the verge of creating their own war, fired up against showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for killing off their favorite character, but, as the Independent reports, anger about the death of Harington’s character was soon abated. Jon Snow returned to the living. Aside from Benioff and Weiss, very few people on the Game of Thrones cast and crew knew that Snow would be resurrected, and one of those lucky chosen ones was Kit himself.
“I knew I was coming back to life, but I didn’t know if I’d come back as a changed person, as a villain,” says Harington. “So I couldn’t pre-plan anything, which was hard. I got the scripts, and actually, he comes back as himself, as the Jon that everyone knows. Which at first I found disappointing.”
Mr. Harington adds that Jon Snow is a changed man and that there is a reason he has come back with a different outlook. Snow knows what few others in the Game of Thrones universe know, and that is that there is no afterlife. Harington says his character is forever changed by the knowledge that nothing lies beyond the great veil.
Kit Harington Treated Sophie Turner The Worst
Kit told the Wrap that he enjoyed the gag order where his Game of Thrones character was concerned because he could use it as an excuse to bow out of interviews and away from fans eager to coax some juicy tidbit out of him regarding Jon Snow. Harington also had to keep the details safe from his Game of Thrones castmates and was forbidden from discussing the topic at all with anyone, but that didn’t mean he had to lie.
Kit laughs now because he had a few people going. Topping that last was Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark on the series.
“I don’t know why I chose Sophie, of all people, to deceive the most. I let her in on the secret last of anyone, really, and she was so sweet. She wrote me a letter about my leaving the show, and she bought that I wouldn’t be coming back,” says Harington. “We’re all very pally with each other on our set, we’re like family, and she genuinely feels like a little sister to me. So I guess I kind of played tricks on her like an older brother would.”
Kit says that Turner wasn’t the only one on the receiving end of his deceptions. On the day he filmed his death scene, which, for all anyone knew, was to be his last time on the Game of Thrones set, Harington made a speech to his co-stars. Looking back on it, he describes his words as an impromptu “hash job” that sounded terrible, even to himself. Kit says he felt terrible about misleading his Game of Thrones co-stars, allowing them to think he thought so little of them on his way out, only to return one season later.
“It wasn’t one of my proudest moments as an actor, either. I wasn’t convincing at all. I didn’t want to do a big speech and start crying because I knew I’d be seeing these people next year,” said the Jon Snow actor. “So I did a bit of a hash job on it, and I could tell a lot of them didn’t buy it.”
[Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for NBC]
