Arise, Jon Snow, King of the North!
If you’re all caught up with HBO’s Game of Thrones, you’ll no doubt recall the rousing scene from “The Winds of Winter,” in which the many house of northerly Westeros, spurred on by the fierce Lyanna Mormont, declared Kit Harington’s bastard to be the rightful (?) King of the North.
Following up on the reveal that Jon Snow is, in fact, a Targaryen, it made for a triumphant scene in a season finale full of them, but at least based on a new interview with Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), it seems as though Harington’s fan-favorite won’t be answering to Jon Targaryen in next month’s Game of Thrones season 7.
As part of its latest issue (with a tip of the hat to Reddit user ‘theshivsharma’), Empire staged an interview with Wright regarding the upcoming season – an interview in which the outlet seemingly unveiled not only Jon’s true parentage, but his real name: Jaehaerys Targaryen.
“As we saw in the last episode of season six, Bran’s (Isaac Hempstead Wright) psychic time-traveling ‘greensight’ revealed the true nature of Jon’s birth heritage and his real name: Jaehaerys Targaryen. ‘Bran’s now in this precarious situation in which it’s just him and Meera [Ellie Kendrick], and he has all of this information that could change the entire story,” says Hempstead Wright. And it’s not just about Jon. “He knows about the origin of the White Walkers, too.’”
Since that show-stopping reveal in Game of Thrones season 6, scores of potential names have been doing the rounds as rampant fans try to nail down the true identity of Jon Snow. Aemon and even Aegon have been floated in the past, but much like the character himself, at this early stage, we really know nothing official about Jon Snow’s actual name.
Game of Thrones season 7 will no doubt herald some answers and many more questions when HBO’s fantasy flagship returns for its penultimate season on July 16th. It’ll be followed in quick succession by an eighth and final season in 2018, while there are also rumblings of multiple prequel series setting up shop at the network. Founding father George R.R. Martin is one of the creative consultants on board, and he’s also still toiling away on literary sequel, The Winds of Winter.
