Kit Harington reveals that the Jon Snow fans will be re-introduced to in the HBO spin-off series will be a very different, wounded man than before.
Kit Harington reveals what Jon Snow will be like when he’s re-introduced in the planned HBO solo spin-off series, and it sounds like he will be a different, wounded character from the man in Game of Thrones. During the final season of the HBO mega-hit based on George R. R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, core hero Jon Snow was met with a bittersweet send-off at best. Throughout the season, Jon faces a fierce battle against a world-ending force in the terrifying army of the dead, learns that his true bloodline was that of a Targaryen, he is heir to a throne he did not desire, and has to kill the woman he loved following Daenerys Targaryen’s descent into madness.
The aftermath of these revelations and fatal choices was Jon being sent back to The Wall, a fate Harington tells Entertainment Weekly has left the character a wounded man leading up to the continuation of his story. Most of Jon’s Game of Thrones arc followed him as both a Ranger and, ultimately, Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, posts which demanded great sacrifice and left the warrior with several demons beneath the ice to which he returns. See what Harington had to say about Jon’s psychological state below:
I think if you asked him, he would’ve felt he got off lightly. 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.
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…That’s interesting. So 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.
What This Could Mean For The Jon Snow Spinoff Show
Harington reflects heavily on the demons Jon will have to face and come to terms with during the potential arc of the Snow spin-off series. This will include not only the trauma of looking back on his decision to kill his beloved Daenerys to save the realm but also directly retreading the lands and memories which shaped the man Jon Snow thought he wanted to become during his time as a Ranger beyond The Wall. Ultimately, this conflict of identity and the shifting contradictions of Jon’s principles could shape the crux of his development moving forward.
From the very start of Game of Thrones, Jon is set up to be one of the few moralized characters in the series. He is loyal, courageous, and merciful. Yet, as the series progresses, his once admirable naivety forces him into heartbreaking betrayals, political power plays, and unsteady alliances. Following the end of Game of Thrones, Jon is presented as a hero still, but one who has been pushed into a sacrifice of many of the principles he once upheld. He has watched his men gorily dismember an entire city; he murdered the Queen he vowed to protect and was banished back to a land he once failed to liberate. All this while juggling the revelation of his past and the complicated bloodlines of Stark ice and Targaryen fire that runs through his veins.
While it is uncertain what a story following Game of Thrones will look like, it feels like the safest assumption that it will be a deep character study of Jon during his attempts to find peace after turmoil. Sending the character South in a follow-up story of political intrigue and the reshaping of Westeros under Bran would be risky and somewhat strange, considering this is a chance to do something different from the style of Game of Thrones. With Tormund and Ghost by his side, it would be interesting to see a more introspective exploration of an individual character in the aftermath of an epic tale rather than Snow trying to replicate its predecessor’s grand scale and ensemble. Like Harington expresses for Jon, it seemed like the entire world wasn’t okay after the finale of Game of Thrones. Still, after the success of House of the Dragon season 1 and having this Jon Snow sequel in the works, it seems like hope for seeing Westeros done justice on-screen is slowly returning.