Kit Harington Revealed Jon Snow Fate to Avoid Speeding Ticket
“Is Jon Snow dead?” It’s a question that haunted Game of Thrones fans since the Season Five finale aired in June 2015. While viewers spent the ensuing months wondering whether the beloved character had been killed, there was one person outside the production that knew Snow’s fate: The policeman who let actor Kit Harington avoid a speeding ticket in exchange for the answer to TV’s biggest secret.
As Harington told The Tonight Show, he was driving home from his parents’ house when he became “a bit naughty” and exceeded the speed limit, which drew the attention of a police officer who promptly put his sirens on and pulled the actor over.
After discussing the infraction with Harington, the officer told him, “Look, there’s two ways we can do this: You can either follow me to the police station now and I’ll book you in, or you can tell me if you live in the next series of Game of Thrones,” Harington told Jimmy Fallon.
The officer also admitted that the fate of Harington’s evening depended on whether Snow lived or died. “He said, ‘I have to tell you, whether I take you into the police station depends on what your answer is.’ So I looked at him and said, ‘I’m alive next season,'” Harington explained. “And he said, ‘On your way, Lord Commander. Keep your speed down this far south of the Wall.'”
The lucky policeman was one of a few select people – including Harington’s parents and girlfriend – who knew that Jon Snow would be returning to Westeros, as Harington told Fallon that he even lied to his cast mates about his character.
“That got tricky as well, because Jon Snow is a character around which a lot of other characters’ storylines pivot around, so essentially when going and telling all my cast mates that I’m not back next season, I’m also going, ‘Oh yeah, and you’re fired too. I’m dead so we’re all kind of not here,'” Harington said of the ruse.
‘Game of Thrones’ actor Kit Harington has apologized to fans for lying about the death – and resurrection – of character Jon Snow.