It’s been nearly a year of teasing and insistences from the show’s producer and even actor Kit Harington himself that the character was well and truly dead while fans debated fiercely whether or not they were lying. On May 1’s Game of Thrones, the fate of Jon Snow was finally revealed and the answer: they were telling the exact truth to hide the bigger facts. Warning: If you don’t want to know, now would be the time to leave. For the rest of you, read on and make note – there are spoilers ahead, Deadline said.
Jon Snow was by all appearances killed off at the end of the fifth season Game of Thrones, a massive cliffhanger made worse because his apparent death was also the final moment of the fifth and most recent book in author George R.R. Martin’s fantasy novels on which the show is based. Game of Thrones is well known for killing off beloved characters, usually right as it’s beginning to look like they’ll win an important victory, but Snow’s apparent death hit fans particularly hard. Cue a year of arguing, speculating and in the case of some rather ardent fans, vows to stop watching should it turn out Jon Snow is actually dead and gone from the show. Well, all is forgiven, and Jon Snow is alive. Again, Deadline said.
His death was the first thing confirmed when the show returned last week for season 6. However, the final moments of the season 6 premiere strongly implied a possibility for resurrection and that resurrection happened thanks to the Red Witch Melisandre as, in the episode’s last moments, her powers actually worked to bring Jon back from the dead, Deadline said.
Game of Thrones became the top trending topic in the U.S. on Twitter on Sunday May 1 evening as the show aired across the various time zones, with nearly 400,000 tweets mainly devoted to celebrating Jon Snow’s return racked up before 7 PM Pacific.
