This is, quite clearly, not a story for anyone who isn't up to speed with Game Of Thrones. We're about to talk about something significant that happened at the end of Season 5. This constitutes a spoiler. There are spoilers ahead. If you keep reading, you will read spoilers. Is this clear?
Still here? Right then. So at the end of Season 5, Kit Harington's Jon Snow was apparently killed. Apparently. Much speculation and rumour-mongering has happened on the interwebs since, circling around whether, even in this show, a character like Snow can really have been offed. Many have suggested that one way to bring him back is through the nefarious necromantic power of the sorceress Melisandre, played by Carice van Houten. Melisandre is, after all, rather conveniently currently domiciled at the Wall.
Speaking exclusively to Empire in the new issue, however, the actress has dismissed this suggestion (in the mischievous way that all fan theories are batted away until they - sometimes - prove true).
"I’m afraid I’m gonna disappoint a lot of people," she winks. "Why so much pressure on my character? I mean, I understand that he’s the good we want in this crazy world. And me and my mother and my sister want him to come back very desperately. But Melisandre has never brought anyone back to life. Why does it have to be me?"
Make of that what you will.
Elsewhere in Game Of Thrones news this morning, showrunner David Benioff has been addressing the fact that Season 6, for the first time, goes beyond George R.R. Martin's source novels into uncharted territory. But Benioff is keen to reassure fans waiting for the tardy next print instalment The Winds Of Winter that they shouldn't fear the show ruining the books from this point on.
"People are talking about whether the books are going to be spoiled, and it’s really not true," he tells EW. "So much of what we’re doing diverges from the books at this point. And while there are certain key elements that will be the same, we’re not going to talk so much about that – and I don’t think George is either. People are going to be very surprised when they read the books after the show. They’re quite divergent in so many respects."
For more, pick up the new issue of Empire, on shelves and available digitally on March 31. Game Of Thrones will be back simultaneously on HBO and Sky Atlantic on Monday April 25. Night owls (or ravens) can catch it at 2am, with a repeat showing at 9pm that night.