Still Miss Jon Snow?

There has been a fog of sadness over the Game of Thrones fandom ever since the last season finale — at least, those members of the fandom who have never read the books. Spoilers. In the Season 5 finale, Jon Snow was killed by the Night's Watch, or, rather, he was stabbed repeatedly and left for dead by the Night's Watch. We'll have to wait until Season 6 to see if he somehow managed to survive, but his actor, Kit Harington, certainly seems eager to convince us that he's done with the show. Luckily, fans won't have to go without seeing the actor's face for very long. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Harington has joined a thriller called Brimstone with Dakota Fanning and Guy Pearce, so it's kind of like Jon Snow has come back to life.

In the film, Harington takes the role of "an outlaw who has a crucial role in the tale of retribution, replacing Robert Pattinson who was announced as taking on the role during the Berlin film festival and market." Meanwhile, Fanning plays "Liz, a heroine on the run from her past and chased by the evil Preacher (Pearce)." All right, so the film sounds pretty far from the plot of Game of Thrones, and Harington's character sounds nothing like the mostly noble, occasionally naive Jon Snow, but it's still something. This project, alongside his upcoming HBO mockumentary 7 Days in Hell, is all the Jon Snow we'll be getting for a while, so we'd better enjoy it while we can.

Maybe that's a good thing. After all, I'd hate for Harington to get typecast as the Game of Thrones fan favorite character when he's an actor of such great depth and range. Getting the opportunity to move on to new projects, try out new things, and show the world that he's more than just Jon Snow at this stage in his career is a perfect way to avoid that kind of intense character-actor association. It won't dispel it completely — just ask Emma Watson, Tom Felton, and Daniel Radcliffe — but it will at least help. I'm pretty sure Harington will still be hearing "You know nothing" jokes until he's in his 80s, but I get the feeling he's probably OK with that.

As for the Game of Thrones fandom, well, you don't start watching the show if you don't expect to be outraged and crushed by what you watch at different points. There are just certain things you have to accept when you watch the HBO hit, and needing a box of Kleenex and access to a social media account through which to rant about the latest character injustice is just a couple of them. Westeros is not a warm and fuzzy Disney land. In fact, the more you believe in kindness and fairy tales in Westeros, the more likely your life is to completely and totally suck until you ultimately get murdered. That's just the way it is, and fans have come to expect that. Sure, many of the non-book readers weren't expecting to say goodbye to Jon Snow, but it really does drive home the idea that anyone can die around here.

And, hey, maybe now there's enough of an opening in Harington's schedule for him and Richard Madden to star in a movie together, and bring Jon Snow and Robb Stark back together again. I have my fingers crossed on that one, but, until then, Brimstone is already shaping up to be a film that we all need to check out. Box of Kleenex to go through as you cry over the loss of a fallen half-Stark is optional, but probably required.

Image: claudiaboleyn, askjon/Tumblr