Uh oh — did somebody get a bit of a talkin’ to from either HBO, George R.R. Martin, and/or David Benioff and D.B. Weiss? Because Ned Stark’s real-life counterpart, actor Sean Bean, is kind of backtracking on the confidence he had when discussing that big fan theory about the parentage of Jon Snow. Needless to say there are spoilers ahead, Game of Thrones fans, so turn away now if you don’t want to have your head done in by a seriously game-changing spoiler. (It’s major, for real. Don’t say we didn’t warn you!)
In a video interview with HuffPost Live, Bean was asked point-blank if he believes Jon Snow is his child. Previously the actor had been on record as saying, “I’m obviously not Jon Snow’s dad.” Now? He’s less than sure of those claims, instead opting to say that he doesn’t “really [know], but I’ve heard some rumors that I can’t reveal at the moment.”
“Oh come on!” the interviewer shouted (as, we’re sure, the rest of the Internet did, too), before he went on to say “I don’t think, I — I very much doubt that he’s my son. I’ve got my suspicions, but I don’t know.”
Bean squirms his way throughout the entire interview before ending it all with the fact that if nothing else, he likely feels like a father figure to Snow regardless. “I mean, I brought him up, I spent all those years looking after him.”
So — who do we think got to Bean? Was it Martin? Benioff and Weiss? Or some combination thereof? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Obviously Sean Bean is not Jon Snow’s dad! After all, you can’t be a father to a fictional character, hint hint.
He’s probably downplaying his previous comments in order to appear on the show again in some surprise cameo during one of Bran’s greensight visions. If he pisses them off too much, he might not be allowed to cameo.
WHERE’S THE SIXTH BOOK DAMN IT!
You should probably be asking Martin yet…
And by “yet”, I mean “that”… I am dumb…
R+L=JHe IS ice and fire.
What does it matter if GRRM got to him? Martin already killed him once! Its not like Martin can kill him a second time.. ohhhhh. wight a minute… oops. 0_o
Yeah, but on his reddit am a today he says something to the extent of “we know I’m not his dad”
So, its for sure still a thing.
R+L=J. All of the evidence is in the first book, but it is in a scene that was conspicuously absent from the tv series. The decision not to include the Tower of Joy scene really makes me wonder, though.
It wasn’t a scene, it was a dream. I bet they’ll have Bran show it with his time traveling tree voodoo.
Exactly… The first time reading the book, I missed what your’e referring to. Then last summer, while waiting on some car trouble, I found the book in my trunk and began reading a random chapter. I felt stupid knowing it was there the entire time and I just failed to connect the dots, possibly under the weight of so many characters and history at the start of the series.
I think they excluded it from the tv show because to include it would be too obvious. You can hide foreshadowing in an enormous book to disguise your intent, but put something like “Promise me, Ned” into the tv show and the game is up immediately.
It’s not on the show because they have a stated policy of “no flashbacks.”
THey also seem to have an unstated policy of “no dream sequences except for Bran.”
I love how he plays along and still talks about Game of Thrones like he is actually a real character. He is a really good sport I have to say.
I’d bet it was all of them. The fact that Martin used Jon’s parent’s identity as a test before he allowed D&D to take on the show, and that even after telling that story a million times D&D have never let slip what their answer was – this is definitely not something they want spoiled or even really discussed until it shows up on the screen (or in the book). I was really shocked when I heard Sean Bean admit to not being Jon’s father – even though it supported a solid theory on who is – it just seemed like it wasn’t something he should be saying.
In his AMA on reddit today he also says Jon is not his son: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2cp9ol/hello_its_sean_bean_a_legend_on_legends_ama/cjho5bm 🙂
On a related note… that was one of the best AMAs ever.