As the hype mounts for the eighth and final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, theories are flying in every direction, especially in regards to who will survive to sit on the Iron Throne. While it’s unlikely that any part of the show’s promotion would make it too easy to guess, some fans have honed in on a potential hint in one of the new posters — and it’s a foreboding one.
The set of official character posters for Season 8 plays off of another question that fans have been asking each other for as long as Game of Thrones has been on the air: In the end, who will be the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros? The images place a multitude of major players on the Iron Throne, including a few who aren’t in the running for the crown, but the one featuring Jon Snow earned a closer look.
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Jon, played by Kit Harrington, has been a major character from the beginning of the series, and has steadily accumulated political power despite his illegitimate heritage. It’s not impossible that he could end up as king, but it’s also entirely impossible he could end up dead, and the way he’s posed in his poster seems to suggest that this is a possibility.
With right hand over left gripping the hilt of his downward-pointing sword, Jon looks eerily reminiscent of Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) in his character poster for Season 1, which aired in 2011. Eddard, also known as Ned Stark, was assumed by many to be the main character of the series until he was executed in Season 1, a twist which set the path for the series, now widely known for its unpredictability and high character death count.
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Jon was originally believed to be Ned’s bastard son, and the two still bear many similarities, so linking their fates this way would make sense. While the pose may be a coincidence, it’s still a given that no characters are safe for the final season — even Jon, who’s already died once.
Season 8 of Game of Thrones, the show’s final season, will premiere April 14. It will feature six episodes with longer than usual runtimes. The HBO drama stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark and Kit Harington as Jon Snow.
