(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you haven’t seen this week’s episode of “Game of Thrones”)
In what may or may not be his exit interview from HBO hit series “Game of Thrones,” Hodor actor Kristian Nairn suggested that his character may go the way of Sandor Clegane and find a way back into the series.
“I couldn’t be happier how he has gone out. The interesting thing is it’s kinda left open. You don’t actually see him [die]. It’s implied,” Hairn said. “So who knows? He may come back as a White Walker, maybe he got away. But it’s a really good way to do it.”
The show’s stars have gained a reputation for being notoriously tight-lipped about the characters they play. Kit Harington lied about Jon Snow’s fate for almost a whole year. Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner had to be pressed into playing Two Truths and a Lie about the future of Arya and Sansa. So anything that Nairn says about Hodor’s seeming death has to be taken with several grains — nay, Hodor-sized fistfuls — of salt.
Some fans believe that Clegane will return to the series because his last scene only showed Arya leaving him for dead, keeping open the possibility that he actually survived his supposedly fatal wounds. Similarly, since we never actually see Hodor breathe his last onscreen, he could be brought back as a big twist later on.
But if this is the end for Hairn and Hodor on “GoT,” the actor at least appears pleased with how he was written out. He was impressed with how the writers revealed why Hodor says his name all the time and used it as a way to reveal the extent of Bran’s greenseeing powers. Through Hodor’s exit, it’s revealed that Bran can not only visit the past, but also have an impact on it.
“Only George R.R. Martin or David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] could have come up with this. It’s incredibly sad. The minute you finally learn something about Hodor, they kill him!”