Spoilers, obviously.
HBO
Death abounds on HBO's Game of Thrones — just ask Jack Gleeson (Joffrey), Rory McCann (The Hound), Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister), Sibel Kekilli (Shae), or Rose Leslie (Ygritte). But each of those actors knew their characters' fates upon landing their respective roles, since George R.R. Martin had previously killed them in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels upon which the show is based.
So what happens when Game of Thrones executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss decide the show no longer needs a character that still exists in Martin's books?
Turns out, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, who played Jojen Reed (until he was killed in the Season 4 finale), was just as surprised as fans to learn about his character's fate.
"I found out on the plane flying over to film Season 4," the actor revealed to BuzzFeed during an interview for his new movie, The Maze Runner. "It happens in the last episode, so I was reading all the scripts and I got to the page where it says, 'Jojen gets stabbed repeatedly in the stomach.' I thought, That's OK. I'll be fine because no one's told me yet and I'm not dead in the books. I'll be fine.
"So I keep reading and see, 'Meera comes over and slits his throat.' Then I thought, Well, I'm amongst all these White Walkers. Maybe the plan is to turn me into a White Walker — that would be really, really cool. Then, that little girl comes out, throws a Molotov cocktail, and I burst into flames. That's when I knew I was definitely, definitely dead. Dead. Properly dead."
HBO
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This Is What It Feels Like To Be Killed Off "Game Of Thrones" When Your Character Is Still Alive In The Books