A familiar face is returning to 'Game Of Thrones', but what could this mean?
Some important gaps in the past could be filled in
Acting is basically showing off for living, isn’t it? Because of that, it must be really confusing when you’re working on a show as shrouded in secrecy as Game Of Thrones. Every impulse in your theatrical body must constantly be going “This is great, I am great, I should show off about this!” but you’re up to your neck in non-disclosure agreements and confidentiality clauses.
We once tried to get in touch with an actor who’d played two different characters on the show, to see what they thought of a fan theory we’d come up with joining the two roles. Their agent said “Unfortunately this is not something that [REDACTED] will be able to be involved in as it’s a non-story. [They are] not allowed to mention GOT in any press at all without strict approval and the GOT powers that be would not give approval for this.”
Damn, we thought. But then you see something like this, where actor Wilf Scolding has posted a picture on Instagram and immediately had to delete it, and the speculation and murmuring and dot-joining that results, and you think, yeah, sod that.
Who is Wilf Scolding? He’s the actor that played Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon Snow’s real dad and Danaerys’ brother, in season seven, when Bran did his psychic time-travel thing and saw Jon’s birth.
Blonde dude on the right - he’s got the trademark Targaryen hair. Here he is secretly marrying Lyanna Stark, Ned’s sister, after annulling his previous marriage to Elia Martell (the Viper’s sister).
The official line was that he kidnapped Lyanna, but they’d actually run away together and were in love. It’s important that they were married - it legitimises Jon and his potential future claim to the throne. Look, here’s a better look at him:
Last season ended with both confirmation of Jon Snow’s parentage and him unknowingly making sex with his aunt. Like, Danaerys was born after Jon’s father (her brother) died, and neither of them know they’re related, and they’re age-appropriate, and they look like Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke, so as aunt-nephew hookups go they could be worse, but it’s still an aunt-nephew hookup, isn’t it? It’s at least a bit grotty.
But back to Wilf. Why’s he deleted his picture of the Europa Hotel in Belfast? You have to assume he’s in Belfast to film more scenes for the show, in that big complex thing they have in the Titanic Quarter.
But why? We know what happened now. Has Bran got so powerful now that he can go back to look at them again but take Jon or Danaerys with him to prove what the deal is? Will we basically see the same scenes again but with a horrified Dany standing with Bran? Or a mildly conflicted Jon deciding he’s still happy enough with how things have worked out?
No idea, and obviously nobody’s going to tell us, so we’ll find out in 2019 with the rest of the world.
(Pics: HBO/Helen Sloan)
