‘Game of Thrones’ Theory Could Reveal Who The Night King Is Targeting

The final season of Game of Thrones is officially less than a month away, meaning the fan theories surrounding the last eight episodes are starting to ramp up. And if a new theory ends up being true, it could indicate a pretty unexpected altercation.

Entertainment Weekly‘s coverage of the final season featured an interview with Vladimir Furdik, who brings the villainous Night King to life in the series. Furdik hinted that the Night King has a bone to pick with a particular character on the show, and that it might not necessarily be Jon Snow (Kit Harington), who he’s previously had several altercations with.

“People will see he has a target he wants to kill, and you will find out who that is,” Furdik said. “There’s also that moment [in “Hardhome”] when Jon Snow was on the boat and the Night King looked at him and raised his arms — there’s a similar and even stronger moment between Jon and the Night King this time.”

Reddit user DaughtersOfTheHarpy crafted a pretty detailed theory around that quote, suggesting that Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) might be who the Night King is after. As they point out, “the NK has had many opportunities to kill Jon”, and “if he was after him that bad, he would have killed him by now”.

The theory goes on to suggest that the Night King and the Three-Eyed Raven (which Bran is the latest incarnation of) are ancient enemies, which would justify why the conflict could be taking place, despite the characters having not crossed paths onscreen yet. Granted, this might blow a hole in the long-running theory that Bran actually is the Night King, but it still would signify an interesting relationship between the two anyway.

“I think the thing with Bran is that he’s had to change massively.” Hempstead-Wright explained back in 2017. “His circumstances are pretty bad, but overall I think Bran has maintained his sense of being good. He hasn’t gone, like, ‘Oh man, I have all these amazing powers now, let’s mess some things up!’”

“What’s been important has been taking this new role and that’s what Bran has done his whole life. He suddenly lost his legs, and then his family got killed, and then his house burned down, so it’s like, okay, ‘Now I’m in this forest with all these random people, and now I’m having weird dreams.’ But what Bran is thinking of above anything else is this sense of responsibility and purpose and not just being a kid anymore and doing whatever he wants to do. Bran has certainly understood that this is out of his control now. He’s a piece on the chessboard that has to make a move, and he hasn’t got any moves.”

The final season of Game of Thrones will premiere on April 14th on HBO.