Given that death seems to only be a minor, reversible nuisance in the Game of Thrones universe, many were hoping that Arya Stark’s season 1 sword fighting instructor, Syrio Forel, was somehow still alive.

For starters, his death occurred off-screen and was only implied. Then there was the theory that he was in fact a Faceless Man.

“I always was like, ‘Oh, no, I feel like he’s still alive.’ I always had my own theory that he and Jaqen [H'ghar] were the same person,” Maisie Williams told IGN this week.

A widely-circulated theory

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However, when she put this theory to show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, they quite unequivocally told her: "No, he is dead."

"I was like, 'Oh, OK,’” Williams laughed. "So that put that to bed really quickly, but I guess we can all still dream."

IGN did point out that this doesn’t necessarily mean Forel is dead in the eyes of George R. R. Martin though.