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A few years ago at the heights of HBO’s speculative yearning for more Game of Thrones, one of the wildest ideas that emerged in the running was a flat-out sequel series, starring Kit Harington’s Jon Snow and set after the events of the main show’s highly controversial ending. But, two years after it first emerged, Harington himself appeared from beyond the Wall to confirm that the show was dead and buried. Now, that may no longer be the case.
As part of a major new profile with George R.R. Martin, The Hollywood Reporter revealed plans for what would’ve inspired the sequel series before it met its end. While Martin himself initially bristled at the thought of a sequel series that could potentially further enmesh in people’s minds the ending to Game of Thrones as it appeared on TV—which he has continued to iterate practically since the moment it aired is vastly different from his plans for the Song of Ice and Fire books’ long-awaited conclusion—the author believed that Jon, isolated as he was from the rest of Westeros at the series’ end, would be the best path forward to continue the story without revealing too much about the rest of the seven kingdoms.
According to the trade, Harington developed an idea with writers from his historical BBC miniseries Gunpowder that deeply focused on Jon’s traumatic state of mind following the events of Game of Thrones. Casting aside both his fabled sword, Longclaw, and his longtime companion Ghost the direwolf, the series would’ve seen an aimless Jon beyond the Wall in exile, constantly building and destroying cabins to give himself anything to do other than be alone with his thoughts. Harington also believed that the only path forward for Jon over the course of the series wasn’t to become a heroic figure again and return to action, but to die—this time, for good.
Although seemingly heavily inspired by the actor’s own struggles filming Game of Thrones, HBO was, perhaps understandably, purportedly not too keen on such a bleak premise for a series. Harington confirmed the project had been shelved by the spring of 2024, but THR reports that HBO is now in the very earliest stages of reviving the show, albeit with a radically altered premise.
Allegedly now being developed by Drops of God writer Quoc Dang Tran, the potential new show would relocate from beyond the Wall in Westeros’ frigid north to the eastern continent of Essos, and instead of following just Jon, he would now be joined by another familiar face—his half-sister Arya, who concluded Game of Thrones by leaving Westeros to explore distant lands further to… well, its west, so presumably at some point she’ll have decided to turn her boat around and go the other way.
But, as we’ve seen before, there’s a significant difference between HBO having ideas about a new Game of Thrones show and a new Game of Thrones show actually happening. This new plot would not just need to convince Harington to return for an idea vastly different from the one he was actually interested in pursuing at some point; it would now also need to potentially bring on board Maisie Williams as well to continue Arya’s story. But the latter does not appear to be the significant hurdle here: Harington is seemingly steadfast that he’ll never return to Westeros again.
“No, god no,” Harington told Variety last month about even the mildest of returns to the franchise when asked if he’d potentially reprise his role for future A Song of Ice and Fire audio books. “I don’t wanna go anywhere near it. I spent 10 years doing that. Thanks, I’m alright.”
Good luck with that one, then.
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