Liam Cunningham reveals a new character, and others tease the White Walker threat

There’s a shot in the latest trailer for Game of Thrones Season 6 in which Davos Seaworth talks to someone about the coming army of the dead. “The real war is between the living and the dead,” he says, “and make no mistake: the dead are coming.”

It’s a clear-headed warning from a character who’s often been an oasis of common sense in a desert of prideful, self-interested egotists who have trouble seeing beyond their own squabbles. As the series heads to an ending, the White Walkers and their army of wights will surely become more important, and it looks like Davos may spend parts of Season 6 trying to convince people of the threat they represent.

We speculated about who Davos might be talking to in that scene before, and now, actor Liam Cunningham has confirmed it. SPOILERS from here on out.

Cunningham revealed the identity of the person Davos is speaking to in a new interview with IGN.

"Who I’m saying that to is a fabulous young actress who you haven’t met yet, who’s about to come in, who’s Lyanna Mormont. He’s explaining the situation to her because certain other individuals are making a mess of their parlay. He’s very good at lateral thinking and explaining the situation, as we know."

Lyanna Mormont, fans might recall, sent Stannis a letter in Season 5, refusing to pledge him fealty. She’s the niece of Jeor Mormont, the former Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, and a cousin to Jorah Mormont, who’s currently searching for Daenerys in Essos. She’s young, but is currently running Bear Island. She has yet to appear in the books, but it looks like she’ll be on the show. Hopefully she’ll listen to Davos’ pleas.

There are two more things to note here before we move on. In the books, Davos visits a lord named Wyman Manderly and tries to recruit him to Stannis’ cause. Certain people in Manderly’s court are not happy to see him. Could his trip to Bear Island in Season 6 be a rough adaptation of his trip to Manderly’s home on White Harbor? Cunningham’s comment about people “making a mess of their parlay” indicates that there are malcontents present, as there were in the books.

The other thing worth noting contains yet more SPOILERS, so if you wanna know, just follow the asterisk to the end of the post.*

IGN interviewed other cast members about the coming White Walker threat (and shot a bunch of videos at the Season 6 premiere event, which have been peppered throughout this post). Dean-Charles Chapman, who plays Tommen Baratheon, is convinced that his character is oblivious. “Tommen don’t even know what’s going on,” he said. “He only knows that he’s got to feed Ser Pounce. It’s worrying. The living is causing chaos as it is, and now the dead are doing it? You can’t win.”

That’s terrible news for the realm, but I don’t think many expected Tommen to be the one to step up and stop the White Walker threat. Bran Stark, who’s currently north of the Wall training under the Three-Eyed Raven, is a better candidate, and actor Isaac Hempstead Wright is hoping that he pulls through. “[H]e’s up where the dead are, and he could potentially be the key to making the dead victorious or defeating them,” Hempstead-Wright said of Bran.

"There’s not much time. Bran has really got to get his act together, and he’s still got many teenage, hubristic tendencies. He’s still making some silly decisions with his powers. He’s got to learn quickly, and he’s got to shoulder a tremendous amount of responsibility with these powers which are going to be crucial, I feel like. For Bran, ‘the dead are coming’ is a real ‘you need to step up to the plate.’"

I’m looking forward to see Bran debut some of his new powers (fans eager to see the Tower of Scene should be happy to hear Hempstead Wright talk about Bran “showing us some amazing glimpses into the past” in the above video), but I also like the dramatic possibilities of him bungling them with “silly decisions.”

A little further south, Michael McElhatton thinks that his character, Roose Bolton, is aware of the White Walker threat. “Without a doubt they know,” he said.

Whether they’ll do something about it is another matter. Iwan Rheon, who plays Ramsay Bolton, doesn’t think it’s too high on their list of priorities.

"It must be [a concern], but it’s not the immediate threat because it seems further away to them than the other people — practically everyone in Westeros — who wants to get rid of them. They’ve got a lot more battles to fight before the White Walkers come."

As Northerners, it makes sense that the Boltons would at least be vaguely aware of the White Walkers, but they don’t have access to Bran’s knowledge or Melisandre’s visions of the horrors to come (which, according to Cunningham, Davos believes, even if he doesn’t like the Red Woman much).

And there are other characters who might know more than they let on. “I think the Faceless Men, they know much more than what we’ve seen so far,” said Tom Wlaschiha, who plays Jaqen H’ghar. “I’m pretty sure Jaqen knows about the White Walkers and the stuff that’s going on in Westeros.”

That’s not one I expected. I wonder if he’s training Arya to be more than just an assassin-for-hire. We’ll all know in less than a week, when the Game of Thrones Season 6 premiere airs on April 24!

*If our speculation holds up, Sansa Stark may be on Bear Island as well. Click that link if you want the evidence, but it’s looking more likely that this is where Sansa will flee after she escapes Winterfell.