HBO’s Game of Thrones is hardly what you’d describe as a happy series, but this year’s sixth season did contain quite a few bright moments and is generally considered to be the most positive batch of episodes we’ve seen since the show’s inception. This is largely due to the resurrection of Jon Snow, and seeing the despicable Ramsay Bolton finally get his comeuppance – but if fans were expecting this to inform the storylines for the final couple of seasons, they may be in for some disappointment.
During an interview with THR, Kit Harington (Snow) suggested that things are going to get much worse for the characters before – and perhaps crucially, if – they get better.
“I think it’s going to get very bleak before if there is a happy ending. If there’s any sort of win or heroic moment for Jon and everyone else. I think it’s going to get very dark before it gets better. I think what we might see this season is those White Walkers and that Army of the Dead really come into force. So that’s going to be exciting to see. I don’t know what it means. I think with the whole ‘winter is finally here’ business, it means everyone is going to have a really bad time.”
I don’t think anyone was under the impression that the show was suddenly going to become a feel-good adventure yarn, but after coming under fire for its relentlessly bleak tone, some may have expected them to lighten things up just a tad moving forward.
Game of Thrones will return for its penultimate season next year, and in the meantime, you can check out this breakdown of some of the new characters we’ll be meeting.