Years Ahead of His ‘Game of Thrones’ Sequel Announcement, Kit Harington Declared He Would Never Return as Jon Snow — ‘Not On Your Life’
Game of Thrones star Kit Harington still isn’t talking about the possible sequel Snow that’s rumored to be in development. He has, however, said in the past that he has no interest in revisiting the character. Years ahead of the sequel chatter, Harington actually declared he would never return as Jon Snow, declaring, “Not on your life.”
A ‘Game of Thrones’ sequel focused on Jon Snow is rumored to be in early development
This past summer it was reported that a sequel focused on Jon Snow was in development at HBO. The network has not made an official announcement, but Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) said that Harington “created” the series. While Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) said she was “excited” about the possibility of a Jon Snow-focused prequel.
Author George R. R. Martin also addressed the topic in a blog post. He pointed out that not every series in development will get the green light. But, he did confirm that he was involved and the working title was Snow.
“Yes, it was Kit Harington who brought the idea to us,” Martin wrote at the time, per Entertainment Weekly. “I cannot tell you the names of the writers/showrunners, since that has not been cleared for release yet… but Kit brought them in too, his own team, and they are terrific.”
Kit Harington declared years ago that he would never return as Jon Snow
Just before Game of Thrones came to an end in May 2019, Harington made it clear that he had no interest in reprising the character that made him a household name once the HBO series wrapped.
“Would I want to go back and do more? Not on your life,” he said in December 2018. “…If, like me, you go all the way back to the pilot of Game of Thrones, that’s almost 10 years of your life. That’s really unusual in an actor’s career. It was a huge, emotional upheaval leaving that family.”
However, it looks like he’s changed his mind since then. At the recent Game of Thrones convention, Harington was on a panel when he came really close to commenting about the possible Snow sequel while addressing where the series finale left his character.
With Jon killing Daenerys and being banished to live life on the Wall in the North, Harington said that if you would ask the character, he would say he “got off lightly.”
“At the end of the show, when we find him in that cell, he’s preparing to be beheaded, and he wants to be. He’s done. The fact he goes to the Wall is the greatest gift and also the greatest curse,” Harington said.
Kit Harington recently revealed that Jon Snow was ‘not okay’ at the end of ‘Game of Thrones’
He continued, saying that Jon must go back to the place with all this history and live out his life thinking about how he killed Dany, and Ygritte (Rose Leslie) dying in his arms, and how he hung Olly (Brenock O’Connor), and all of the other trauma.
“That’s interesting,” Harington coyly emphasized. “So I think where we leave him at the end of the show, there’s always this feeling of like… I think we wanted some kind of little smile that things are okay. He’s not okay.”
That was the first glimpse fans got into Harington’s headspace about his character’s end on Game of Thrones, and what could possibly come next. The only other time the actor has addressed the rumored prequel was on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in September.
“The only thing I’ll say is that I know nothing about it… George is allowed to talk. I would be talking in riddles if I went any further,” Harington said.
All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are streaming on HBO Max.
