Kit Harington Debunks Major ‘Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow Return Theory

Even amid the anticipated return that capped off Sunday’s Game of Thrones, there remain plenty of unanswered questions for viewers and book readers alike. Now, Kit Harington may have debunked one major theory about Jon Snow’s revival on the HBO side, but will the same prove true of George R.R. Martin’s Winds of Winter?

Keep in mind both spoilers for the most recent HBO Game of Thrones, as well as those of the published books, but fans still wonder about the exact circumstances of Jon Snow’s resurrection, particularly if Jon’s direwolf “Ghost” shared any involvement. In the books at least, the Stark children (including Jon) all seem to share some latent “Warg” abilities, while Jon’s final literary word after the Dance of Dragons stabbing was notably revealed as “Ghost … “

The ambiguous nature of that scene left many to believe that Jon’s consciousness would survive within Ghost, at least temporarily, though a new Kit Harington interview with Entertainment Weekly suggests that idea didn’t make it into Season 6:

There’s a brilliant line when Melisandre asks: ‘What did you see?’ And he says: ‘Nothing, there was nothing at all.’ That cuts right to our deepest fear, that there’s nothing after death. And that’s the most important line in the whole season for me. Jon’s never been afraid of death, and that’s made him a strong and honorable person. He realizes something about his life now: He has to live it, because that’s all there is.

He’s been over the line and there’s nothing there. And that changes him. It literally puts the fear of god into him. He’s seen oblivion and that’s got to change somebody in the most fundamental way there is. He doesn’t want to die ever again. But if he does, he doesn’t want to be brought back.

If it weren’t clear enough, EW makes the explicit connection that Harington’s words debunk the Warg theory, though it isn’t to say that the same would be true of George R.R. Martin’s literary Jon Snow. If nothing else, showrunners have noted a strong connection between Jon and Ghost, that the animal was the first to sense Jon Snow’s return, perking up for his master when all others had abandoned hope and left the room.

We’ll undoubtedly get some further glarity on Jon Snow’s return by Sunday’s “Oathbreaker,” but what other theories will end up confirmed or debunked this season? Cough, R + L = J …