First things first : If you have n’t yet watch “ Home , ” Sunday ’s episode ofGame of Thrones , halt reading this decent now , because we do n’t desire to spoil it for you .
For the past 11 month , lover of the HBO series have put forth all sorting of theories — some of them wishful , some of them solemn , and some of them just plain off - the - wall — about whether or not kit up Harington and , more importantly , Jon Snow , would be returning to the series for its 6th season ( after he was brutally stabbed to death in the season five coda ) . And this preceding weekend , they finally got their answer : Jon Snow has been resurrected ! Thanks to the witchy ways of Melisandre ( though something tells us that ’s one favor she ’ll need to see repaid ) .
While much of the chatter in the past two days since the sequence air has been of the “ OMG ” and “ WTF ” change , the sequence ’s director , Jeremy Podeswa ( who was also at the helm of this time of year ’s premier instalment , “ The Red Woman ” ) , sat down withThe Hollywood Reporterto in the end break the silence and dish on all the behind - the - fit maneuverings that brought us to that last , climactic moment where Jon set up his way back to the support . Here are seven things we learned from Podeswa ’s interview .
1. THE SECRECY SURROUNDING THE EPISODE WAS “UNPRECENTED.”
For the better part of a class , fans have expend hour speculating about what might become of the Lord Commander of the Night ’s Watch . And given that insider information is at a premium these days ( yes , dollar are exchanged for effective TV intel ) , keeping the plot twist enigma was full of life to its success .
“ It was kind of unprecedented , ” Podeswa say of the lengths use up to ensure there were no leak . “ Really , we were all very aware that this would be the major spoiler of all time if it ever got out . Everybody was very concerned about continue the mystery story for the interview and give hoi polloi the opportunity to name it for themselves , rather than having it leaked . I believe that ’s ultimately what people require . As much as people were inquire me and everybody else on the show constantly if Jon Snow is live or numb , I think really in their affectionateness of center they did n’t actually need to know . ”
2. BUILDING TENSION WAS THE DIRECTOR’S HARDEST JOB.
When asked about the problematical part of denounce Snow ’s resurrection scene , Podeswa say that it was really about “ establish the right amount of latent hostility through the vista , so you really did n’t know up until the last irregular which way it was going to go . That was the cock-a-hoop affair , creating a sense of mystery story and thaumaturgy around the whole thing . We really wanted that scenery to be very beautiful , but also pregnant with tenseness . ”
3. THE FILMMAKERS LOOKED TO REMBRANDT FOR INSPIRATION IN DESIGNING THE SCENE.
Podeswa and his team looked to the work of Rembrandt — specifically , his 1632 petroleum paintingThe Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp — as a reference work to guide the visuals of the view . “ It had a very rich , textual , moody atmospherical quality . I recollect we were all in that outer space for a long time for this scenery — while we were shooting all the scenes involving Jon Snow ’s body , really , but particularly the one where he ’s resurrected . Even though you ’re filming something and it ’s all script , there ’s still a sense of ritual about it because you ’re filming a ritual . It has all these lilliputian details that you need to bewitch , and a very specific temper and flavor . It felt like we were in the process of a little ritual while filming it , actually . And it feels like that when you ’re watching the prospect , in a way . ”
4 . PLAYING beat ISN’T ALWAYS AN ENJOYABLE TASK FOR AN ACTOR .
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“ I think he play dead really well , ” Podeswa say with a joke of Harington ’s purposefully lifeless carrying into action . “ The heavy affair about Kit is he ’s an incredibly salutary sport . Whatever is require , he ’s there , one hundred per centum … It ’s evidently not the most exciting affair for an histrion to trifle [ dead ] , of course , but he knew it was part of the whole arc of what he was go to be doing this season , and he was completely halt . ”
5. PODESWA IS GLAD THE BIG REVEAL HAPPENED IN EPISODE TWO.
While the director ca n’t speak to whether resurrecting Jon was always project to befall in the second instalment , he — for one — is beaming it did . peculiarly from a storytelling viewpoint . “ I ’m not certain if there was surmisal on doing it in the first place or afterward . For me , it feel like a great clip for it to happen . There ’s so much in the first episode of the show , so to put [ Jon ’s renascence ] on top of it would have been a set . I think it extend the tension a little bit longer , too . ”
6. MELISANDRE CUTTING JON’S HAIR WAS NOT A CHEEKY NOD TO THE FANS.
Many TV conspiracy theorists consider that the key to cracking Jon Snow ’s fortune was to obsess over Harington ’s hair in the off - season . So when Melisandre cut Jon ’s hair in the resurrection scene as part of the rite , some fans wondered whether it was a cheeky path of pronounce " you bang nothing " to members of the Harington Hair Patrol . Podeswa does n’t guess so . “ From a ritualistic panorama , all of these thing are very important . I wo n’t speak to any form of wizard ritual , but it seems to me that hair’s-breadth and other aspects of the soundbox are all very organic to any kind of magic rite , especially when seek to animate somebody — that seems like it would be a natural thing to do , whether it ’s Jon Snow or not . ”
7. RESURRECTING A CHARACTER, AS OPPOSED TO KILLING HIM, DOESN’T MEAN THE SHOW IS GETTING SOFT.
If there ’s one thing thatGame of Thronesviewers do it , it ’s that no one — not even their favorite characters — is ever dependable . Which , for some , is what made Jon ’s Christ’s Resurrection almost more surprising than his murder . “ I retrieve that the spirit is so well - established at this point already that anything can happen at any prison term to anyone , ” Podeswa countered when asked whether Jon ’s Christ’s Resurrection was suggestive of a big overall faulting in the show ’s direction . “ I imagine this is a very especial matter involving a major , major character , but I call back the show is already established . There ’s a world of options . ” ( For those who need more trial impression that the show is n’t getting soft , just re - follow all of Ramsay Bolton ’s scenes . )
[ h / tThe Hollywood Reporter ]
