Since Game of Thrones Season 6 started filming in Northern Ireland, we’ve seen filming on lonely swept plains, filming in Winterfell, and heard talk of filming on ships and harbors. But as every Harington Hair Watcher knows, what we’re really looking for is filming where Jon Snow’s body lies cold on the ground, and the Night’s Watch now have to consider their next move. Until we see what happens at Castle Black and The Wall, Jon Snow is Schrödinger’s crow—both dead and not dead until we open the episode.
This weekend, pictures finally surfaced from filming in Magheramorne Quarry for Season 6. Found via Watchers on the Wall, the photos are too far back to show who is at The Wall being filmed, and they don’t let us know anything concrete about Jon Snow’s fate. But!
If one looks closely here (and compares it to the photo below) there’s quite a column of smoke rising from the courtyard. As we have seen over the course of the seasons, that’s where the Night’s Watchmen ceremonially burn their dead. Even though Jon Snow’s death is by treason, he was still the Lord Commander, and the few still loyal to him in the Night’s Watch—not to mention the wildlings he saved at Hardhome—will most likely still ceremonially burn his body. (If for no other reasons than to prevent him from rising again as a wight.)
Now, of course, it could be other things. The fire could be a sign of those loyal to Jon Snow, and the wildlings he saved, doing battle against the traitors. But WOTW suggests that this is probably the funeral we’ve been waiting for. So, for those still holding out hope, it would seem that even if Jon Snow is going to somehow magically resurrect in Season 6, it won’t be before his funeral pyre at least begins to burn.
But as Dany has been known to say—fire cannot harm a dragon. So if those birth rumors are true (which would make Jon not just Ned’s nephew, but Dany’s as well), perhaps we can hope this fire—if it is Jon Snow’s funeral pyre—does not truly signal the end of of the hair watch.
But if this really is proof that Jon Snow’s funeral has been filmed, it might just be time for Harington to go for that shave and a haircut we’ve been dreading.
Next: Martin feeling the pressure to finish The Winds of Winter