Tobias Menzies talks the return of Edmure Tully

Season 6 is the season of returns, and last night we got three: Benjen Stark, not seen since Season 1, showed up to help Bran and Meera in their time of need; Walder Frey, absent since Season 3, returned to complain about the seizing of Riverrun by the Blackfish; and Edmure Tully, last seen marrying one of Frey’s daughters at the Red Wedding, returned not much changed.

Well, he looked a little gaunt, but according to a new interview in Entertainment Weekly, Menzies didn’t have to starve himself for the role or anything. “He wasn’t being underfed. He was just sort of, you know, maltreated.” He also points out that time in Westeros likely hasn’t passed as quickly as time in the real world—just because Edmure has been off the show for two-and-a-half years doesn’t mean he’s been in prison for that long.

In George R.R. Martin’s books, high-born prisoners are often given comforts befitting their rank, although there are exceptions (Jaime Lannister wasn’t particularly comfortable during his imprisonment by the Starks, for example). And considering how much Walder Frey hates the Tully family, I can believe that a little mistreatment was in the cards.

Although Edmure shows back up in the books after the Red Wedding, Menzies didn’t know if the producers were going to have his character return. “There had been a couple of seasons and so I didn’t really have a huge expectation that I would come back,” he said. “It was very, a nice surprise.”

"I think they’ve sort of found their way and chose what bits of the book they are doing. They just got in contact a little bit before we shot to see whether I was available, whether they could fit me in. It was a question of fitting in amongst my other commitments. But I’m a big fan of the show and was keen to make it work if I could."

Good on Menzies for making time (he’s currently a cast member of Starz’s Outlander, and has several other irons in the fire besides), although this makes it sound like a return might not have happened but for the grace of scheduling. But that’s showbiz for you.

Finally, Menzies dropped some hints about where Edmure’s story is going:

"He is still a prisoner of the Freys and then the Freys try and use him as bait to reclaim Riverrun, which is his ancestral home. And then Jamie Lannister gets involved. [Edmure] becomes a pawn in a large political fight. He ends up having to make a very difficult decision over whether to betray his family."

Book-readers can probably guess some of the details involved, although with the producers more willing than ever to depart from the source material, who knows which ones will make it on to the show?