Do we really need to tell you this is a spoiler? This is a spoiler. Or rather, it's a story about what not to expect in Game Of Thrones' fifth season when it premieres next year. In a surprising twist, given the drama at the end of Season 4, actor Kristian Nairn has revealed that he and Isaac Hempstead-Wright have got the year off, meaning that we won't be returning to the Bran and Hodor strand of the story until at least Season 6.
This almost certainly means we won't be seeing Meera Reed (Ellie Kendrick), the Three-Eyed Crow (Struan Rodger) or the Child of the Forest (Octavia Selena Alexandru) either, since they were all with Bran and Hodor when we left them in the cave under the Heart Tree beyond The Wall. They'll be there for a good while longer while the series catches up with other business, but that's not entirely inconsistent with the books, which have also abandoned the characters for long periods.
"We have a season off and we have a year’s hiatus, solely because I imagine our storyline is up to the end of the books,” says Nairn.
Not actually true. We're up to the point where George RR Martin's third Game Of Thrones novel, A Storm Of Swords, leaves them. The fourth and fifth books, A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons, take place at the same time, each dealing with a separate half of the huge cast of characters, divided geographically. So while Bran, Hodor and co. aren't in book 4, we do pick up with them again in book 5. There's more story there for them had the show's writers opted to go with it - but perhaps that would move Bran and Hodor too far forward of the rest of the action.
Temporarily dropping their strand clearly leaves more time for the show to introduce its new Westeros location Dorne, and to introduce copious new characters including High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce) and Doran Martell (Alexander Siddig).
"I get my year off now to do Rave of Thrones and gallivant all over the world,” laughs Nairn, in reference to his other career as a DJ.
Game Of Thrones' fifth season will begin on HBO next spring. Martin's sixth Song Of Ice And Fire, The Winds Of Winter, will be published... when it's published.