Game of Thrones star Kit Harington has seemingly softened his stance on HBO’s now-scrapped Jon Snow spinoff, after previously saying he wouldn’t “go anywhere near” the character again.
Speaking on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast, Harington reflected on his decision to walk away from Snow, the Game of Thrones spinoff sequel he helped develop with HBO for several years.
Snow was set to tell a dark story of Jon Snow’s return to the Northern wilderness following the shock ending of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire adaptation. Consumed by grief and suffering from PTSD, Snow would have seen the character ditch his beloved direwolf Ghost and famous sword Longclaw, then spend his time building cabins only to burn them down again. According to Martin himself, Harington had called for his character to die and avoid being a hero. Cheerful!
The idea was ultimately canned, and Harington has subsequently suggested he was done with the character for good. But now, after several years of separation from Jon Snow, Harington said he could see “a world in which something could work.”
“We developed it for two years or so and I still think there’s a world in which something could work,” Harington said. “I wouldn’t have gone into it in the first place if I didn’t. But I was very insistent at the start — and they were as well, HBO and George [R.R. Martin] — that if we don’t find the right thing, we won’t do it, it’s much, much better that we don’t. And after a while of thinking about it, I think it was me that said ‘look, I think this isn’t quite the right time.’
“And I think I was right because I’ve gone and done all these other things and now I’m more comfortable with that character and that world again, in where it sits in my life.”
Last year, Harington was asked about reprising his role as Jon Snow again for a potential upcoming Game of Thrones audiobook. “No, god no,” he said at the time. “I don’t wanna go anywhere near it. I spent 10 years doing that. Thanks, I’m alright.”
Could Harington ever return as Jon Snow in the future? Even if Snow itself never gets made, HBO is said to be exploring the idea of a replacement spinoff sequel focusing on Arya. Perhaps he could pop up in that?
