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Game of Thrones: Kit Harington Confirms He Won’t Be in Any Spinoffs
As the main Game of Thrones story comes to an end next year and HBO sets its sight on multiple spinoffs, Kit Harington confirms he won’t reprise his role as Jon Snow in any other shows.
Since 2011, Harington has played the moping Snow and outcast of the prestigious Stark family. But alongside the likes of Arya and Sansa, Jon has been on one of the show’s biggest arcs. After joining the Night’s Watch and leading them to glory, surviving death at the hands of his own men and taking on the White Walkers, Jon rounded off season 7 by shacking up with Daenerys Targaryen while unaware of his family ties to her. Now, there are only six episodes left to tell Jon’s because Harington promises he is laying down his sword for the final time.
As with any Harington interview, talk soon turns to Game of Thrones, and when speaking to GQ Italia the 31-year-old discussed the future of the world of Westeros:
“I think there’s going to be spinoffs, but I’m not going to be involved in any of it.”
With Game of Thrones boasting one of the best casts around, Harington is right up there with the likes of Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. However, with such big names comes an equally large price tag, so Kit has a novel idea for keeping costs down for the next show:
“The great thing about ‘Thrones’ for HBO is that you can sell it in a totally different way. You could set it 300 years earlier and save a load of money because we [the cast] are very expensive now.”
Little is known about the spinoffs so far, but from an original order of four, HBO is reportedly working on five new shows once we (temporarily) leave the Seven Kingdoms in 2019. There are already reports that all will be prequel shows – making a Jon Snow appearance a little more complicated anyway – but Harington makes it clear that he won’t be taking part anyway. Audiences already know that current showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss also won’t be taking part, but that fans will be able to recognize familiar events or stories from the Thrones they have come to know.
Elsewhere, George R.R. Martin is working closely with the spin-offs, and at least one script is already finished. Sadly, no spinoffs are expected until 2020, and even then, not all five are expected to go to full series order. That being said, HBO execs only recently confirmed that the network will be putting all its might behind the projects, with some equally bank-breaking budgets to go with it.
While fans are ultimately gutted that Game of Thrones is approaching its swansong, even the cast themselves admit that it should end on a high. Jon Snow may know nothing, but Harington knows that he’s about ready to let the character go. As for the spinoffs, at least the world that Martin has created will get to live on in some form on our screens – and if they are even half as good as Game of Thrones, then audiences are in for a treat.
