“Jon Snow is dead,” reads the first sentence of the cryptic season 6 description that HBO released for Game of Thrones yesterday. And this new clip, which accompanied actor Liam Cunningham’s appearance on Conan last night, seems to bear that out—Ser Davos is at Castle Black in the company of the Night’s Watch, Ghost the direwolf, and, yes, Jon Snow’s corpse.
But come on. We haven’t gotten this far and dug through this many theories to let the sight of Kit Harington lying down spook us now, right? As Conan O’Brien says in the clip right there, everyone is wondering whether Jon Snow is really dead. And if you’ve been wondering that yourself in the long 10 months since Game of Thrones last aired, you’ve surely come across some theories that explain how he can be lying cold in that room with Davos and also come back to fight for Winterfell (and maybe find out who his real parents are in the meantime.)
This clip is an extended version of the scene that ended the first season 6 trailer, and in true no-spoilers fashion doesn’t reveal much else about what Davos is planning to do with that sword, beyond breaking down a wall and revealing . . . something. But given that some petrified fans had speculated that Jon’s direwolf Ghost was also lying dead in that scene, it must come as some relief to see the fluffy companion alive and well. And for everyone who’s been pulling for Ser Davos as Shireen taught him to read and Stannis repeatedly failed to appreciate him, it’s nice to see the Onion Knight in the company of the Night’s Watch—a group of men who know what it’s like not to fit in with the rest of the world, and who might allow him to emerge as the hero he’s clearly born to be.
With just over two weeks left to go before Game of Thrones finally returns, actors like Cunningham won’t have to dance around spoiler questions much longer—or joke about the HBO “snipers” who follow them on press appearances, just to make sure they don’t say too much. That is, at least, until season 7 starts filming.
