The season 6 premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones is only weeks away (cue the mixed emotions). To keep up the anticipation, today HBO announced the name of the upcoming premiere episode.
The first episode of the sixth season will be titled “The Red Woman,” obviously a reference to Melisandre (Carice van Houten). And if you will recall from last season, Melisandre was last seen at Castle Black, which was the scene of Jon Snow’s apparent death.
Speaking of Jon Snow and being dead, the description for the episode offers a little bit of insight into the opening of the sixth season. The description HBO released reads, “Jon Snow is dead. Daenerys meets a strong man. Cersei sees her daughter again.”
They don’t even pretend to keep us guessing. I guess the game is up. All the facts seem to point to Jon Snow being dead for real. Kit Harington even told Time Out London, as previously reported “Look, I’m not in the show anymore. I’m definitely not in the new [season]. I filmed some scenes of me being dead— it’s some of my best work.” When asked what kind of secrets he knows about season 6, Harington only replied,”I don’t have a clue. I know how long I’m a corpse for, but I can’t tell you that!”
Instead of lingering on the death of a beloved character, we can look ahead at what to expect to see this season. HBO has announced that following the events of last year’s finale, the survivors from all parts of Westeros and Essos regroup and move toward their fates. We will see old characters making new alliances and also meet some new characters along the way. But above all, we can expect to see more turmoil concerning the balance of power (as always).
In the press release, HBO listed the returning series regulars, but, sadly, Harington was not among them. While you let that reality sink in, what we can look foward to is seeing the return of Emmy and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), Aidan Gillen (Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish), Diana Rigg (Lady Olenna Tyrell), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), and Jonathan Pryce (the High Sparrow).
We can also look foward to meeting some new characters played by Pilou Asbaek, Essie Davis, Souad Faress, James Faulkner, Richard E. Grant, Ian McShane, Joe Naufau, Freddie Stroma and Max von Sydow.
Game of Thrones returns to HBO on April 24.