Game of Thrones star Kit Harington says Jon Snow, his character in the epic fantasy show, would never have been happy had he ended up on the coveted Iron Throne.
Based on GRR Martin’s book “A Song of Ice and Fire”, the HBO series was set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the continent of Essos.
The eighth and final season of the show, which ended last year, was a fight to the finish between Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Heady) for the throne after fending off the Army of the Dead, led by the Night King.
While some were disappointed not to see one of the show’s fan favourites Snow take the throne in the south, Harington said it was the right call to have his character be banished back to the north following his assassination of Daenerys.
“When people say to me ‘I wish you had been on the Throne’ or ‘I wish you had been with Dany on the Throne’ I would disagree, because Jon’s place was always in the north. He would never have been happy in the south.”
“He’s like Ned Stark (played by Sean Bean). When Ned goes south, he’s in danger. Jon is always happiest... it’s like when Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) says to him, ‘You’re of the north’ It’s right. He belongs north of the wall,” Harington said in a video chat to a Twitter user.
The 33-year-old actor added Jon heading back to the north at the end of the series gave him closure.
“He’s (Jon) been saddled with this weight all the way through the series and he’s this heavy character — he’s literally got a cloak on and he’s heavy.
“And what I wanted with that last bit is for there to be this lightness about him. It’s all falling off, this terrible thing that he’s been through is all falling off as he goes north of the Wall. I could go on about this for hours!”
Harington, who previously defended the show’s divisive climax, also admitted he still hasn’t seen the final season of the series, which saw Bran Stark, youngest of Ned Stark’s surviving children, get the throne.
The showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss were under fire for below par script writing and poor portrayal of women in the last season.
