While the actions of Daenerys Targaryen in the final season of Game of Thrones divided the fandom over whether or not enough story track was laid in the show to justify her decisions, there was a much greater sense of unity over the seemingly-out-of-nowhere conclusion for Bran Stark in the series finale.

In a new interview, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who played Bran on the HBO show, explained that his character’s surprising ending was part of A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin‘s original plan all along.

Several years ago, when it became clear that the show would blow past Martin’s novels, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss met with Martin in the author’s Santa Fe, New Mexico home and Martin laid out his plan for the ending of his epic saga. But before season 8 began, the showrunners told the press that out of respect for Martin and his books, they wouldn’t be revealing which plot developments were their invention and which aspects of the show came from Martin. That way, book readers could still have some element of surprise when (or, let’s face it, if) Martin finishes writing and publishing the last two books in the series.

So for the entirety of season 8, book readers who also watched the show have been speculating about which events were dictated by Martin in that fateful meeting and which ones were creations of the showrunners and their writers. Now, in an interview with Making Game of Thrones, Hempstead-Wright has spilled the beans about one major thing that Martin planned:

David and Dan told me there were two things George R.R. Martin had planned for Bran, and that was the Hodor revelation, and that he would be king. So that’s pretty special to be directly involved in something that is part of George’s vision. It was a really nice way to wrap it up.

All hail King Bran! Back in season 6, Benioff and Weiss admitted that Martin told them about Hodor’s fate, but this is the first time we’re explicitly hearing about an event from the final season that was also a part of the author’s plan. As for Martin himself, he addressed the potential differences between the show’s conclusion and his planned book ending right here, so check that out if you haven’t yet.