Of all the Game of Thrones fan theories currently flooding the Internet, the one that arguably gained the most traction over the course of season 7 involved the Night King and Bran Stark, who is now known as the all-seeing Three-Eyed Raven of Westeros.
It’s a little out-there, but stick with us. Essentially, the theory postulates that young Bran Stark is the Night King, and his ability to flit back in time can be traced all the way back to the moment when the Children of the Forest birthed the White Walkers north of the Wall. It would go some way to explaining Bran’s seemingly limitless ability, which took center stage during Sunday’s finale “The Dragon and the Wolf” when he revealed Jon Snow to be Aegon Targaryen, the rightful heir to the Iron Throne.
But does that really mean that Bran and the all-powerful – and as of Game of Thrones season 7, dragon-riding – Night King are one and the same? Here’s what actor Isaac Hempstead Wright had to say when quizzed by The Hollywood Reporter:
I don’t know. I think it’s a little bit far-fetched. But the whole Hodor thing, if I had read that as a theory, I would have said, ‘Nah, this is crazy.’ So, who knows? Although I have to say, people are now comparing my face to the Night King and going, ‘Yeah! It’s him! It’s over, there’s no question about it!’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t look that much like the Night King, do I?’
Last seen riding the resurrected Viserion over Eastwatch – or should we say, what remained of Eastwatch – the Night King is set to feature quite prominently in the show’s eighth and final season. Flanked by an undead army that’s growing by the day, Westeros’ grim reaper is an icy force to be reckoned with, but what about the possibility of Wright seizing control of the Night King via telepathy/mind control? Or, as it’s known on Thrones, ‘warging’?
That would be good, if he could warg into him. But I don’t know what the logistics of that are now, considering he’s under the control of the White Walkers and the Night King. Why hasn’t Bran ever just warged into the zombies and stopped him? I don’t know if he can do that. Who knows whether he actually can warg into Viserion, if that ever were to occur.
Don’t expect any of those questions to be answered until Game of Thrones returns in 2019, at which point series mastermind Geroge R.R. Martin will have surely finished his literary sequel, The Winds of Winter.
