This week we got the absolute bombshell that HBO is in early development of a Game of Thrones sequel series about Jon Snow, with Kit Harington attached to reprise the role should the network greenlight the series. We’ve been doing all kinds of theorizing about Game of Thrones successor shows, but this one came in like a Targaryen on dragon-back and blasted away all our speculations.
Now, all bets are off. Yes, House of the Dragon is still on the way. As of this writing, that is the only confirmed Game of Thrones spinoff series that we are getting. HBO is developing a whole bunch of series, but as we saw with Blood Moon, they’re also not afraid to pull the plug if something’s not working. Despite fears that HBO is Disney-fying the Game of Thrones franchise, it seems like they’re trying very hard to be careful with how it proceeds.
But all that said, they’re developing a freaking Jon Snow sequel. What insane news.
Of course, if Jon is coming back and this series is set after Game of Thrones, that opens the door for other actors from the main series to return as well. Jon had ties to a whole lot of people in Westeros, and some of them are actually in positions where it might make sense to see them cross paths with him once more.
An awful lot will depend on when exactly this sequel is set, and what it chooses to focus on. It could just be a slice-of-life drama of Jon living in a bearskin hut in the woods for all we know. But we’re going to speculate anyway!
What characters from Game of Thrones might we see in the Jon Snow sequel? Who wouldn’t make any sense to have around? Let’s discuss!
Tormund Giantsbane
If there’s one character from Game of Thrones I would expect to see in a spinoff about Jon Snow, it’s Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju). At the end of Game of Thrones, Jon was exiled to live out his life with the Night’s Watch as punishment for assassinating Daenerys Targaryen. The last we see of him, he’s riding north with the wildlings, possibly to escort them back to their homes before returning to Castle Black, possibly to join them. Tormund, the fiery, boisterous wildling warrior who was once an enemy of Jon’s before becoming one of his greatest allies, rode with him.
Given that the two ended the series together, it would make total sense for Tormund to crop up again. If Jon decided to live out his days beyond the Wall, why not hang with his buddy Tormund from time to time? Heck, maybe they even ended up in the same village, or as chieftains of neighboring camps. (We all know Jon can’t avoid having leadership thrust upon him, no matter how hard he tries.)
And if Jon ended up going back to the Night’s Watch or something similar, then hey, Tormund’s no stranger to the Crows. So long as Jon Snow stays in the area around the Wall, we’ll be betting on seeing Tormund.
Arya Stark
Arya (Maisie Williams) and Jon have always had a strong connection, right back to their very first scenes in the Game of Thrones series pilot. Though they weren’t siblings by blood, it never lessened their bond. Jon was the one who gifted Arya her trusty sword Needle, a weapon which held great personal meaning to her as she went on her own journey to become one of the most deadly assassins in the world.
Like Jon, Arya ended Game of Thrones by traveling off into the sunset. In her case, she set out on a sea voyage to explore whatever’s “west of Westeros” and go beyond the known maps.
But all sea voyages must end somewhere. Is it possible that Arya may one day return to Westeros? And if so, might she wish to seek out the brother she loved so well? Or maybe she might sail all the way around the world, and discover another path back to Westeros that leads her farther north?
This one feels possible but not at all a sure thing. It’s not totally outlandish to imagine Arya and Jon reuniting considering how important they are to one another, and Arya’s tendency to travel to places others wouldn’t dare. But it would also be pretty reasonable for her to stay off on her own adventures.
Sansa Stark
There’s another Stark sibling much closer to Jon’s last known location, though. After advocating for her people and helping them survive the war with the White Walkers, Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) made Westerosi history by becoming the first Queen in the North. We last saw her in Winterfell, taking her throne in the great hall surrounded by loyal bannermen.
Throughout Thrones, Sansa grew into a skillful leader with a shrewd mind for politics. But the North can be an unruly place; it’s as large as the other Six Kingdoms combined and is inhabited by a diverse group of peoples. If Sansa’s going to rule in the North, she’ll almost certainly have to contend with wildlings at some point. Sure, things will be different now; it’s doubtful there will be as many bloody raids and such, since the wildlings and Northerners fought together against the army of the dead. But that’s not to say relations will be simple. This is Game of Thrones, after all.
Perhaps Sansa might need Jon’s diplomatic touch to help keep the peace, or to negotiate some new trade routes with a rebuilt Hardhome. Perhaps she is a more attentive ruler than some of her forebears, and visits the Wall to rebuild the Night’s Watch.
Beyond Tormund, Sansa is the next closest character to Jon geographically. And she formed a strong and complex bond with him in Game of Thrones as well. Their reunion in season 6’s “Book of the Stranger” was a direct punch to the feels. We can only imagine what it would be like to see them reunited a second time.
Bran Stark
Bran the Broken (Isaac Hempstead Wright) left off in a pretty comfortable place at the end of Game of Thrones, relatively speaking. Despite losing his humanity in order to become the omniscient Three-Eyed Raven, Bran is chosen to become the ruler of the Six Kingdoms. He’ll never sit the Iron Throne; it’s nothing but a pile of slag by the time Bran becomes king. But that’s okay. He’s not too concerned with such things.
Let’s be real: the chances of Bran hoofing it all the way back up to the Wall in order to see Jon are pretty much nil. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for him to still appear in some way. Bran is an incredibly powerful warg capable of projecting his consciousness leagues away from his body. In Bran’s final scene of Thrones, he tells his Small Council that he’s going to “look” for Daenerys’ dragon Drogon. This implies he can travel great distances with his mind, even farther than we saw in Game of Thrones, when he used a murder of crows to see beyond the Wall. So if Bran wanted to visit Jon in some way, he could.
Samwell Tarley
The Samwise Gamgee to Jon’s brooding Frodo, Samwell Tarley (John Bradley) has been a friend to Jon Snow since they were a pair of outcast recruits in the Night’s Watch. Their friendship lasted right through to the end of Game of Thrones; Jon may have grown up among the Starks, but Sam was just as much his family. And who wouldn’t love a good ol’ Night’s Watch family gathering?
Having Sam appear in a Jon Snow sequel would be a real coin toss. On the one hand, he’s a pretty busy guy by the end of Thrones, serving as Grand Maester to King Bran. He won’t get a lot of vacation time. But on the other hand, Sam does have a past with the Wall, enough that he might want to visit it one more time in his life. And if he’s traveling all the way up there, surely Jon would ride down out of his secluded hermitage to catch up and share a pint of thin Night’s Watch ale.
Given the strong relationship Jon and Sam had in Game of Thrones, it would be really powerful to see them together again.
Davos Seaworth
Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) became one of Jon’s closest advisors during the campaign to defeat the Boltons, and continued to serve in that role right up until the bells tolled over King’s Landing. He may not have the history with Jon that some of the other characters on this list do, but they still shared an awful lot of experiences.
Davos spent more than his fair share of time on ships during his days as a smuggler, which led to him being appointed Bran the Broken’s Master of Ships. With a whole fleet at his disposal, might he take advantage to visit Jon?
It’s not impossible, but we’d be surprised to see him. Davos was already in his elder years during Game of Thrones. If the Jon Snow series is set a decent amount of time after the ending, it would probably be unreasonable for Davos to be making trips up to the Wall. But so long as he hasn’t died of old age, we can’t rule him out either.
Tyrion Lannister
I’ll be honest with you: one of my biggest letdowns with Game of Thrones was that Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) never got to give all his friends his special vintage of wine, “The Imp’s Delight.” I know it’s a small thing, but ever since he ruminated during season 6 on how he hoped to one day retire and make his own wines (which he would selectively give out to only his best friends), I’ve wanted to see it happen. Could this sequel be the perfect place to see that fantasy realized?
Perhaps. By the end of Game of Thrones, Tyrion is serving as Hand of the King to Bran. Despite the prestige of the position, Bran actually frames it as a way to punish Tyrion for all the mistakes he’s made, since Tyrion has already served as Hand a few times in his day and had no desire to do so again.
But Bran seems like a pretty forgiving guy. Maybe in Tyrion’s old age, he’s relieved of his Hand-ly duties to once more travel and finally brew up his special wine. He visited the Wall once before; might he choose to do so again? After all, he and Jon had an instant friendship, and no doubt bonded even more strongly over their shared despair concerning Daenerys. They could commiserate over a bottle of the Imp’s Delight.
This isn’t one I’m holding my breath for, but boy would it be fun.
Brienne of Tarth
While she and Jon were never particularly close, Brienne of Tarth (Gwendolyn Christie) has done her fair share of traveling in the North. She ended up as the new Lord Commander of the Kingsguard by the end of Game of Thrones, and who’s to say those duties might not take her to Jon’s neck of the woods?
Of all the possibilities we’ve mulled on, the reappearance of Brienne seems the least likely. Yes, she’s still alive and will undoubtedly be traveling the realm for years to come, but she doesn’t have any particular bond with Jon that would justify their paths crossing. Then again, Game of Thrones did always have a habit of having characters drift through each others’ lives in unexpected ways.
Nonetheless, the only way we can see Brienne appearing in the Jon Snow sequel is if she’s escorting someone else up there, say Sam or Davos. Or maybe visiting Sansa and then getting involved in things that way. It’s hard to imagine her voluntarily going all the way up to the Wall for her own reasons, especially when all her duties are in King’s Landing.
Yara Greyjoy
A character whose duties would bring them much closer to Jon is Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan), the Queen of the Iron Islands. The Ironborn and the Northerners have long had a rocky relationship, with plenty of blood shed along the Stony Shore over the years in raids and skirmishes. Yara swore her people would cease their raiding when she was working with Daenerys, but with Bran in charge, who knows what could happen? There’s always a chance some upstart Ironborn wants to recapture the glory days and start raiding again, which could bring them in contact with Jon.
Even more likely than that would be some sort of exploration or trading that might bring Yara’s newly reclaimed kingdom into contact with Jon and his wildling companions. Beyond the logistics of how they might meet, there’s also enough emotional weight behind Yara and Jon’s shared bond with Theon (Alfie Allen) to provide juicy story fodder. He was a brother to them both, in his own way. If Jon and Yara did meet again one day, it could lead to some really interesting conversations.
Ygritte
Time to move into heartbreak territory. Ygritte (Rose Leslie) was Jon Snow’s wildling lover during season 3 of Game of Thrones; they shared one of the greatest romances in the series. Despite caring for one another, Jon’s loyalty to the Night’s Watch eventually drove him to betray her and the rest of the wildlings. As a result, he and Ygritte found themselves on opposite sides of the Battle at Castle Black in season 4.
We all know how it ended. Though Ygritte insisted she wanted Jon dead, when the moment came she hesitated. It cost her her life. A young Night’s Watch recruit named Olly shot her in the back with an arrow, and she died in Jon’s arms.
If this show is going to be heavily focused on Jon Snow’s character, it could make room for dreams or visions of those he’s loved and lost. All that solitude north of the Wall would probably be fertile ground for broody Jon Snow to be haunted by his past. And few people were as important to him as Ygritte.
Of course, the real-life story is much happier. Kit Harington and Rose Leslie fell in love during their time on Thrones and ended up getting married. If Harington is back to star in this series, it probably wouldn’t be too hard to convince Leslie to return as well.
Daenerys Targaryen
Staying in this lane, there is one wound that is even worse for Jon: I’m talking about Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), the queen he fell in love with and then murdered after she torched the innocent people of King’s Landing with her dragon.
The final season could have explored the relationship between these two more. Dany was Jon’s lover, but she was also his aunt and the only other living Targaryen. How did he feel about all that? The show left a lot to the imagination, but if we’re getting a Jon Snow spinoff, it would have to deal with the emotional fallout from Jon’s choice to kill Daenerys. What does it mean to him to have killed a woman he loved? To have murdered the only other person who could understand the Targaryen side of his lineage?
Frankly, it’s just hard to imagine a sequel about Jon Snow not addressing some of these questions. The storytelling potential is too good.
And if Jon is going to be haunted by his decision to kill Daenerys, what better way to drive that home than by having him literally be haunted by visions of her, or nightmares? Daenerys’ murder was the thing that drove Jon into exile. Having Emilia Clarke return in some capacity as Dany would only make it that much more heart-wrenching.
Ghost
We’re going to end with a faithful character who must be in the Jon Snow spinoff. Ghost is Jon’s trusty white direwolf, and there’s no question that if Jon Snow is going to be returning to the screen, Ghost needs to as well. While he didn’t quite get as much screen time as he deserved in the later seasons of Thrones, Ghost was always a fan favorite. Jon raised him from a puppy, and in the show’s final moments the two were reunited after spending far too long apart.
Ghost goes with Jon and the wildlings beyond the Wall at the end of the series, and it’s extremely fitting. Direwolves are animals that originate beyond the Wall; in both the books and show, Ghost was always comfortable hunting for food and ranging off on his own in the far North. He and Jon belong up there, in their way, and they belong together.
There’s another element to Ghost that could be really interesting in a Jon Snow-centric show, and that’s the warging factor. In the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin, both Jon and Arya have the ability to warg into animals, like Bran. For Jon, this manifests through his strong bond with Ghost. While Game of Thrones chose to leave out this plot point, a sequel dedicated to Jon Snow could be the perfect place to revisit it, especially if he’s still beyond the Wall with the wildlings, since they are much more familiar with wargs.
Really though, it just comes down to Jon and Ghost being together. Tease us with a Jon Snow sequel all you want HBO, but if you don’t put Ghost in it the fans will riot!
Thus concludes our list of top suspects for cameos in the Game of Thrones Jon Snow sequel. Who did we miss? Who do you think is most likely to appear? We’ve got all the time in the world to speculate here, so hit us with your theories!
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