Spoiler alert: Immediately leave this Web page now if you have not seen the Season Five finale of “Game of Thrones.”
But what’s most shocking about the much-loved Snow’s unexpected death on “Game of Thrones” was that the actor who plays him as well as a producer of the series have confirmed that it’s for keeps.
“We did the Tony Soprano walk [letting an actor know they’re being whacked],” Kit Harington, the curly-locked actor who plays Snow, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published after the show aired. “And they said, ‘Look, you’re gone, it’s done.’”
Of course, when a character dies, it doesn’t necessarily, really, totally, forever, for keeps mean that he or she dies. Sherlock Holmes came back from the dead. So did, in some form or fashion, Neo, Gandalf and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
So, Jon Snow, what gives?
“If anything in the future is not like that, then I don’t know about it,” Harington said. “But I’ve been told I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m not coming back next season. So that’s all I can tell you, really.”
Plunging the metaphorical dagger in deeper was showrunner Dan Weiss.
“Dead is dead,” he told Entertainment Weekly.
Hm. Maybe the scene is open to interpretation?
“It should be pretty clear what happens in by the time you’re done seeing that scene,” Weiss said. “It’s not an, ‘Oh what just happened scene?’”
The problem for viewers: They’re bummed. The problem for Harington: He needs a new job, especially after his movie “Pompei” flopped last year.
“I’m looking for movies for next year,” Harington said. “I’m in a very lucky place — I can turn things down and do what I want to do. There’s a couple movies I’m looking at, but I can’t really talk about them yet. I might take a holiday. I might try writing. I’m trying to figure it out.”
It seems Harington may land on two feet: He’s been paired with Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain in an upcoming film.