Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy on "Game of Thrones." HBO The "Game of Thrones" cocreators pranked Alfie Allen into believing his character, Theon Greyjoy, was being killed off.

Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are known to play pranks on the HBO drama's cast. In this trick, they preyed on Allen's fear that he wouldn't be returning to the show after Theon lost control of Winterfell toward the end of the second season.

The actor told Entertainment Weekly that he actually got a fake season-finale episode script that had Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) reclaiming the castle with the words, "This is my Winterfell, not yours," before stabbing Theon in the heart.

Allen was convinced he was done, but actually loved the story twist.

"I thought it was cool," Allen told EW. "I went on a holiday, and David and Dan were all thinking I was going to call up going, 'Hold on a minute whoa-whoa-whoa!' But I just got on with it. Then they had to make it clear to me later on it was all a joke."

Hard times awaited Theon as Ramsay Bolton's (Iwan Rheon) prisoner on later seasons, but at least he's still alive.