“The seed is strong.” Supposedly, those were the dying words of Jon Arryn shortly before the events depicted in the pilot episode of Game of Thrones. Of course, our only source for that was Jon’s wife, Lysa (Kate Dickie). But considering the fact that she poisoned him, Lysa isn’t exactly a reliable source.

In a new interview, John Standing, the actor who portrayed Jon Arryn’s corpse in the pilot episode of Game of Thrones revealed that the first version of the pilot included Jon’s death scene. And it was very different from the way that Lysa said it happened.

“There was an American director [Thomas McCarthy], and he was totally enchanting,” Standing told Los Siete Reinos. “He said ‘Jon, I want you to get out of your bed, and I want you to crawl across the room and I want you to put your hand up. There’s a bottle of ink on the table and I want you to take it as though you’re going to write something. The bottle of ink will come crashing down, you’ll be covered in ink. And then the queen, she’ll come in and she’ll stamp on your fingers and you’ll die.’ And I said, ‘got it, okay.’”

Standing recalled shooting the scene with Lena Headey, whom he described as “adorable” and “just the best.” But when director Tim Van Patten reshot and recut the pilot episode, Jon Arryn’s death scene was left out.

Amusingly, Standing also noted that he still gets fan mail for his only scene in the pilot, in which he lies perfectly still with stones over his eyes.

Do you think that Jon Arryn’s death scene should have been included in the Game of Thrones pilot? Let us know in the comment section below!

—

HT: Los Seite Reinos & Watchers on the Wall

Image Credit: HBO

Everything we know about Game of Thrones’ sixth season so far: