The world of Game of Thrones was full of shocking betrayals, gruesome battles, and more deaths than a medieval plague. But for Kit Harington, the real agony wasn’t being stabbed repeatedly by his Night’s Watch brothers, it was not knowing if he had a job.
Imagine getting murdered on screen, only to have your bosses cryptically tell you, “Don’t cut your hair.” Not “You’re coming back.” Not “Jon Snow is too important to kill off.” Just a vague threat about your luscious locks.
This wasn’t just a hair-related hostage situation, this was showrunner-level psychological warfare. While fans worldwide were crying over Jon Snow’s corpse, Harington was sweating over hair maintenance, unsure whether his career had met an untimely end. The man couldn’t even enjoy a summer trim without fear of permanently ruining Westeros continuity. If this isn’t emotional torture, what is?
The great Jon Snow deception in Game of Thrones
When Kit Harington filmed his heartbreaking Game of Thrones Season 5 finale death scene, he did what any reasonable actor would do, assumed he was officially unemployed. His contract had ended, his watch had ended, and the only thing left was to mourn his lost role in a pub somewhere. In an interview on The Rich Eisen Show, Harington revealed,
I didn’t know how I was coming back to life. I just knew that they said, ‘Don’t cut your hair.’ Basically they said, ‘Don’t change anything, don’t go do anything drastic. We don’t want to tell you this cause we wanted you to be worried, but now we have to tell you.’
That’s it. No explanation. No reassuring pat on the back. Just a weird demand that made Kit feel like a hostage to his own follicles. For an entire year, he walked around in existential dread, unsure if he was going to be revived or if he was just being kept in limbo to fuel fan theories. And because this was Game of Thrones, it was entirely possible that his glorious curls were being preserved only for a brief, one-episode flashback before his body was dumped in the woods.
Naturally, Harington did what any logical person would do in this situation, he suffered in silence, obeyed the hair rules, and probably avoided all mirrors just to prevent spiraling into a hair-induced identity crisis.
The showrunners’ evil master plan
The masterminds behind Game of Thrones didn’t just create a show, they orchestrated a grand-scale emotional rollercoaster for everyone involved, including their own cast. According to Kit Harington, their approach was pure sadism. In his interview on The Rich Eisen Show, he jokingly said,
They’re sadistic. The showrunners are sadistic. Have you not noticed that yet? They’re so horrible. They’re horrible people. They like causing pain.
Let’s be honest, that isn’t far from the truth when you look at their track record. These are the same people who gave us the Red Wedding, the beheading of Ned Stark, and the heartbreaking direwolf deaths. Did we really expect them to handle Kit Harington’s situation with kindness? No.
So, while fans were debating whether Jon Snow was truly dead, Harington was out there fielding questions from friends, family, and confused barbers about why he couldn’t make even the slightest tweak to his look. And when the big revival finally aired, it wasn’t just Jon Snow coming back to life, it was Kit Harington finally being freed from a year-long hostage situation.
Game of Thrones can be streamed on Max.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
