Game of Thrones actors: even we didn’t know who would die For the first time, Game of Thrones has no literary source. Which meant the cast were as shocked by the […]

For the first time, Game of Thrones has no literary source. Which meant the cast were as shocked by the sixth series as TV audiences are about to be, says Sarah Hughes

At 2am on 25 April, the most heavily anticipated hour of television this year will finally air, as the sixth season of Game of Thrones returns to Sky Atlantic. Thousands of eager fans are expected to pull themselves out of bed despite the ungodly hour, happy to go without sleep if it means they can uncover the answer to the show’s biggest question: is Kit Harington’s Jon Snow dead – or alive?

The cast has remained tight-lipped on the character’s fate in the run-up to the show’s return, with Harington himself insisting that no one can come back from being stabbed that many times (by his fellow Night’s Watch officers), while fellow cast members have stated that reported sightings of the actor in Belfast (where many scenes are filmed) with Snow-length curls were merely rumours.

“This is a show where the good guys die. It’s like life, it’s unfair. I’m sorry.” i's TV newsletter: what you should watch next Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription. Carice van Houten, Melisandre

“What sort of show would this be if you saw this particular character getting 10 knives in his back and then turning out not to be dead?” says Liam Cunningham, who plays the straight-talking Davos, one of the show’s few honourable men. “I’m not sure what more you’d need to do to prove that he’s dead.”

Carice van Houten, who plays the mysterious “red priestess” Melisandre, a woman many fans believe has the power to bring Snow back to life, agrees. “I understand why we need the good characters to come back because the show takes place in such a screwed-up world,” she says. “But this is a show where the good guys die. It’s like life, it’s unfair. I’m sorry.”

‘So much diverges’

Despite the continued denials, not everyone is convinced – with good reason. This is the first season in which the TV show will entirely depart from the books on which they are based. George RR Martin has yet to finish the long-awaited sixth novel, The Winds of Winter, and the fifth, 2011’s A Dance With Dragons, ended with the scene that has so gripped fans: Jon’s betrayal by his erstwhile band of brothers.

“Die-hard book fans may not be thrilled that some things have been cut out, but you can’t hope to include everything.” Michael McElhatton, Roose Bolton

In other words, this is the first time in which the TV series could spoil the books. Will the show’s co-writers David Benioff and DB Weiss follow Martin’s lead (they will certainly have talked to him about how he sees the story unfolding) and thus give away some of the plotlines of The Winds of Winter – or will they create something entirely different from what ends up on the printed page? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Benioff suggested the latter, saying: “So much of what we’re doing diverges. People are going to be very surprised when they read the books after the show.”

As far as the cast is concerned, divergence is a good thing. “My feeling is that it doesn’t really matter. Our bible is the scripts,” says Michael McElhatton, who plays the coldly scheming Roose Bolton. “Die-hard book fans may not be thrilled that some things have been cut out, but you can’t hope to include everything.”

Tits and dragons

Jonathan Pryce, who plays the High Sparrow, a priest intent on cleansing corruption from King’s Landing, agrees. “Dan [Weiss] and David are constantly striving for something different, and I think that’s why it continues to appeal.” The very secrecy surrounding the new season also adds to the appeal. In a world where spoilers leak online and paparazzi shots are spun into a story, the genuine uncertainty surrounding both Jon’s fate and the major plotlines of this season is refreshing.

“At the end of the first read-through for this season, I just sat back and thought: ‘Oh God, this is it, they’re setting it up for the end’” Maisie Williams, Arya Stark

In the past, there have been numerous flashy premieres – last year’s European event was held at the Tower of London – and promotional parties, while preview discs of the first four episodes have been sent out to critics across the globe. This year there has been one low-key event in LA, where attendees had to sign a form promising not to discuss what they saw. No new cast information was confirmed at Comic Con, although the irrepressible Ian McShane subsequently did his best to talk about his new role anyway, noting in a UK interview,: “I was accused of giving the plot away but I just think, get a life. It’s only tits and dragons.”

Not all his fellow cast agree. “At the end of the first read-through for this season, I just sat back and thought: ‘Oh God, this is it, they’re setting it up for the end,” says Maisie Williams who plays teen assassin Arya Stark. “Just hearing all the different characters and where they end up at the end of this season, whether dead or alive, was amazing. I can’t wait for people to see it – I can’t wait to see it myself.”

Mammoth undertaking

Game of Thrones is a mammoth undertaking – at the LA premiere, Benioff described it as “a beast”, as the production logistics grow ever more complicated. This year, shooting took place in five countries (Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Iceland and Canada). “We shot 680 hours of dailies, which translates to 3.7 million feet of film,” Benioff said. “We shot two units a day for 22 weeks straight, three units for 10 weeks straight, four units for two weeks.”

Small wonder, then, that HBO is apparently reconciled to the series ending after the eighth season – although, as ever, that ending remains a mystery to pretty much all involved. “That’s the ultimate question,” says John Bradley, who plays the amiable Sam Tarly. “We don’t know what ending we’re going to get or what kind of story we’re telling. Is this a tale where the good guys triumph or where the bad guys thrive? All we know is, it won’t end happily for everyone.”

Game of Thrones returns to Sky Atlantic at 2am on 25 April and is repeated at 9pm that evening