By now, every Game of Thrones fan knows the tale of Benjen Stark, brother to Ned. Or at least, we know how it ended. After he went beyond the Wall on a ranging way back in season 1, Benjen was eventually killed by White Walkers. The Children of the Forest revived him as a wight, but one with his will still intact, and he spent the remainder of his non-life protecting the members of his family who happened to wander beyond the Wall, including his nephews Bran Stark and Jon Snow. He finally died — for good this time — protecting Jon from wights on the frozen lake.
But what happened in the interim? Unless George R.R. Martin gives us more information in forthcoming installments of A Song of Ice and Fire, we may never know. Happily, fans have picked up the slack. In 2013, photographer Benjamin Von Wong made a short film about Benjen’s journey. We may already know his end, but the filmmaking is still impeccable, and Yves Pelletier makes an excellent Benjen. Check it out:
I like the theatrical look of the White Walker on the horse, with his blocked-out eyes. Unfortunately, Wong never got around to continuing this story, but there are some extensive behind-the-scenes videos, plus a look at how the one-on-one fight sequence came together:
Man, this crew really put in the work.
So while we never got a proper sequel to that fan film, Wong did arrange a photoshoot imagining what Arya and Sansa Stark would look like all grown up…back before that actually happened on the show. Observe:
It seems Von Wong loves playing in the world of Game of Thrones. We know the feeling. If Wong ever wants to make more of these, we’re pretty sure he’ll have an audience.
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