Sean Bean Insists He’s Not In Game of Thrones Season 6

We know that Game of Thrones Season 6 will bring us flashbacks, most prominently a scene at the Tower of Joy that’s being filmed this week at the Castillo de Zafra in Spain. Since the scene at the Tower of Joy involves a young Ned Stark fighting alongside several of his companions against members of Aerys Targaryen’s kingsguard, some are hoping that Sean Bean will return to the show as Ned Stark, the role he played in Season 1 before he, y’know, got decapitated. I mean, sure, it would require Sean Bean to play a younger version of the character even though he’s gotten older, but that didn’t stop Orlando Bloom for playing a younger version of Legolas in the Hobbit movies, and those were set over 70 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings. Compared to that, the time jump on Game of Thrones is child’s play.

It’s not happening, though, at least according to Bean himself, who was interviewed at the premiere of The Martian, the movie where Matt Damon plays an astronaut who’s been stranded on a hostile planet (again).

I applaud the interviewer for getting sneaky with his phrasing. “Have you filmed scenes for Season 6 yet, or is that something that we look forward to?” That’s a leading question if I ever heard one. Anyway, judging by Bean’s befuddled response, I think we can safely say that we won’t be seeing him in Season 6. As Bean explained, “I got me head chopped off in the first series.” Oh, yeah.

Exactly who will play young (but not really young) Ned Stark remains a bit of a mystery, although we’re pretty sure we know who’s playing Arthur Dayne. Hopefully the filming news from Spain this week will clear that up.

As long as we’re looking at interviews that answer questions the probably didn’t need to be asked, check out this hanger-on of an interview that George R.R. Martin gave right after last weekend’s Emmys, in which Game of Thrones cleaned up with a record number of wins. The first two minutes are pleasant, as Martin reflects on the show’s win for Best Drama and laments that the actors who played all the dead characters couldn’t be on the stage with him and the crew. The interviewer tempts fate around 2:02, when she asks him whether the show’s victory will inspire him to ease up on killing characters when writing books 6 and 7.

Knowing Martin, I’d say that question earned us at least one more brutal death of a beloved character, despite the author’s speculation that “maybe it’ll all be unicorns and rainbows now.”

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