Harington reportedly brought the pitch for the in-development "Snow" sequel to HBO, riding high off the breakout success of prequel "House of the Dragon."
HBO proved there's still live in Westeros with "House of the Dragon," set many years before the events of "Game of Thrones." Does that mean fans are ready for what comes after?
Kit Harington has been doing some thinking about it. His character, Jon Snow, is one of those at the center of one such sequel series reportedly in development. Certainly his "Thrones" story didn't end the way he might have hoped.
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View StoryIn the controversial 2019 finale of the juggernaut fantasy drama, Harington's Jon wound up killing Daenerys after she went mad and scorched King's Landing. For his deed, he was banished back to the Wall, where he'd already spent many years in the frozen North.
"I think if you asked him, he would've felt he got off lightly," Harington said at the official Game of Thrones convention over the weekend, per E! News.
"At the end of the show when we find him in that cell, he's preparing to be beheaded and he wants to be. He's done. The fact he goes to the Wall is the greatest gift and also the greatest curse."
At least had he been beheaded, all of Jon's suffering would be over. All of the regrets and doubts and second-guessing would be over. He would be, at long last, at peace. Instead, he gets to live with all of it.
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View Story"He's gotta go back up to the place with all this history and live out his life thinking about how he killed Dany, and live out his life thinking about Ygritte dying in his arms, and live out his life thinking about how he hung Olly, and live out his life thinking about all of this trauma, and that--"
At this point, Harington gave a very pregnant pause that was filled with meaning and terrible, terrible teasing for rabid fans hoping for some inkling of confirmation that all of what he's talking about will actually be explored on the small screen.
"--That's interesting," Harington concluded with just the right amount of emphasis. Interesting means worth exploring. Where do you go with a character buried under so much regret and doubt about the path he'd chosen, regardless of the outcome.
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View StoryAnd how do you move forward in a compelling and interesting way with a character already banished from the realm? Do you go back North across what's left of the Wall and explore that world now that the Night King is no more? Does he leave Westeros? Or does the banishment mean as much this time as it did last time?
The final tidbit Harington left fans with was to say, "I think where we leave him at the end of the show, there's always this feeling of like-- I think we wanted some kind of little smile that things are okay. He's not okay."
Of course, this is the world that George R.R. Martin built. Is anyone really ever okay? "House of the Dragon" is filled with miserable people all suffering for one reason or another, mostly of their own design.
Hmmm, that does sound a lot like how Harington is describing Jon Snow's mental state when we leave him at the close of "Game of Thrones." And Harington talking about Jon's mental state carries more weight than many actors speculating because Martin already revealed that it was Harington who brought the "Snow" sequel idea to them.
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View StoryIn a blog post over the summer, Martin shared that Harington brought the idea, as well as his own writers and showrunners. While Martin would not reveal names, he did say "they are terrific."
"Snow" is just one of several spinoffs in various stages of development. There was uncertainty as to how fans would receive new "Thrones" material after the parent series left them frustrated, but they've embraced "Dragon" wholeheartedly in record-setting numbers.
That's good news for Harington, as well as possible series featuring "The Sea Snake," Princess Nymeria of the Rhoynar and even Martin's prequel story, "The Hedge Knight." Plus, fans have not yet given up hopes that Arya Stark might yet return to continue her adventures (she was last seen sailing away).