New photos from the set of Game of Thrones season 6 reveal serious spoiler updates in the ongoing saga of Jon Snow.
The images, from the U.K.’s Daily Mail, capture actor Kit Harington on a snowy set in Northern Ireland. Though Harington stands with his back to the camera, it seems fairly clear that he is playing an active part in the scene.
So in spite of Harington’s, his co-stars’, and his bosses’ insistence to the contrary, it seems that Jon’s rather emphatic death in the season 5 finale didn’t quite stick. But in addition to his (not terribly unsurprising) transformation from corpse to living man, Jon Snow also appears to have undergone another change — one with even greater potential significance.
The set photos from Game of Thrones season 6 reveal that Harington’s costume has been notably revamped. Gone are Jon’s layers of black wool and leather, the raven-dark uniform that earns the men of the Night’s Watch the name “Crows.”
Instead, Harington is wearing what appears to be a surcoat of brown leather, and a blueish-gray shirt underneath. While these may seem like minor details (gloomy colors are gloomy colors), the fact is that Harington has not been seen in colors other than black since his character returned from a mission with the wildlings beyond the Wall.
As Jon was Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch when he died at the hands of his sworn brothers, it is distinctly notable that he no longer wears that midnight uniform. Men of the Night’s Watch wear their blacks constantly, even when they leave the Wall on missions down south — so why has Jon changed his colors?
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Among the various possibilities is the chance that Jon has left the Watch behind; his oath, after all, binds him only “until [his] death.” While that clause doesn’t usually offer many options, the sudden arrival of Melisandre at the Wall during the season finale significantly broadens the possibilities for Jon’s future.
So has Jon joined the cause of the Starks? Is he a roving agent of justice in the wild North? Is he starting a metal band called “Ice”?
The Game of Thrones season 6 set photos offer no hints in this regard — but frankly, nothing would surprise us at this point.
Game of Thrones season 6 will air in Spring 2016 on HBO.