Kit Harington Reveals Where Jon Snow Went at the End of 'Game of Thrones'

Remember at the end of Game of Thrones when Jon Snow does something, um, very dramatic? Yeah, you didn't dream it. He really did stab and kill Dany as she was trying to be all lovey-dovey. He couldn't very well stick around after that, so we see him, in his final shots, riding calmly with the rest of the Wildlings north of the Wall.

But what does that mean? Was Jon Snow just heading up north for a wintery vacation before returning to Westeros? Was he banished forever? Or did he choose to leave himself? Kit Harington answers all these questions and more (including how he really felt about Arya killing the Night King) in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter. 

When asked how he felt about Jon Snow's last moment being leading the Free Folk back to the North, Kit replied, "I loved it. When I read it, that bit really made me cry... As far as the ending for Jon Snow, this character that I loved for so many years and had grown so close to, and had meant so much to me ... seeing him go beyond the Wall back to something true, something honest, something pure with these people he was always told he belongs with — the Free Folk — it felt to me like he was finally free."

I don't know about you, but as a fan, I felt the same way. This was one of the (ahem, few) things they got right at the end of the series. Kit continued, "Instead of being chained and sent to the Wall, it felt like he was set free. It was a really sweet ending. As much as he had done a horrible thing [in killing Daenerys], as much as he had felt that pain, the actual ending for him was finally being released."

Speaking of that gruesome end for Dany, Kit reveals that he read the script on a plane on the way to a read-through in Belfast, sitting next to Emilia Clarke, who had already read it. "I didn't realize what was going to happen the whole way through until maybe half a page before Jon kills Dany. I remember my mouth dropping open and looking across Emilia at the tale, who was slowly nodding as I went, "No, no, no!"

He was completely stunned by it, even though later he acknowledged that the series had been building up to this moment. I'm sure when you're playing the character, you're so in it that you're not thinking seasons ahead. 

Speaking about shooting the actual scene where Jon kills Dany, Kit said, "We felt a sense of responsibility over it. We shot the hell out of it. It was essentially a page-and-a-half of dialogue, and we spent three weeks filming it... It's one of the hardest things we filmed." 

While Jon Snow is the one to slay Dany, we all know by now that it's Arya who gets to the Night King and saves Westeros from the Night Walkers. How did Mr. Harington feel about this little plot twist? "I was a bit pissed off, only because I wanted to kill the Night King!" he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I think I felt like everyone else did, in that it had been set up for a long time and then I didn't get to do it."

But he admits that he was super happy for Maisie Williams, who plays Arya. "I was secretly like, 'I wanted to do that!' Especially because I love fighting with Vlad, who also played the White Walker I fought at Hardhome. I've never seen a better swordsman. But it was a really great twist, and it tied up Maisie's journey in a really beautiful way. Over the seasons we've seen her build up these skills to become this hardened assassin, and she uses it all to kill our main antagonist."

You have to admit that was absolutely the best moment from the final season. If you remember that episode, Jon is basically trapped behind the ice dragon while the Night King approaches, and at one point, he screams out. There was a fan theory afoot that Jon shouted at Arya to go and kill the Night King.

But when asked about that fan theory, Kit shakes off the possibility. "What, the big man goes and tells the little girl to go and [do it]? No thanks. That's crap. She did it all on her own. It had nothing to do with Jon."

With Jon Snow north of the wall, Sansa queen of the North, and Bran in charge of the resteros of Westeros, it seems like things ended somewhat the way they were supposed to. It became clear throughout the final season that many of the actors had conflicting feelings about the direction of the series, but at least Jon Snow's ending seemed to make sense, and I'm glad Kit felt the same way.