Somewhere, Ned Stark is smiling. That’s because his creator (and executioner) George R.R. Martin has finally gotten a taste of his own medicine. Midway through Syfy’s Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, the third entry in the unstoppable Sharknado franchise, the Game of Thrones author loses his head in the jaws of an airborne shark. That’s right — that portly, bearded gentleman in the movie theater who kind of looks like George R.R. Martin? It really is George R.R. Martin, making a top-secret cameo that the network managed to actually keep a secret until the film’s premiere Wednesday night.

The manner of Martin’s Sharknado death is so cruel and callous, he could have written it himself. One moment, George is sitting there marveling at the majestic sight of a three-headed shark in the film Shark Wedding…

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… and in the next instant, a live shark bursts through the screen and lands on his lap, making a meal of his midsection.



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Then another shark flies by, taking Martin’s noggin with him and splattering blood on the woman one seat over… who happens to be wearing a wedding dress. (We shouldn’t have to spell the significance of that visual metaphor out for you.)

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And unlike Jon Snow, there’s no Lord of Light priestess waiting in the wings for an anticipated resurrection of Martin’s onscreen alter ego. Instead, to quote Arya Stark, “He dead. Like so dead. Like OMG dead!”