'Game of Thrones' Cast Plays 2 Truths and a Lie: How Many Names Will Arya Cross Off of Her Kill List?

Robert Chan
·Writer

Two Truths and a Lie is not for the faint of heart, especially when played with the cast of a show shrouded in secrecy, like Game of Thrones. The players are asked to give two truths and one lie — without revealing which is which. The actors, naturally, are all terrified of revealing anything that would get them into trouble. Even in the stately rooms of the L'Ermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills, California a day after the Hollywood premiere, tension filled the air as they tried to come up with convincing fibs and keep a poker face. One false word and, as Liam Cunningham calls it, “Mr. HBO” would be coming for them. Iwan Rheon, who plays arguably the show’s biggest rule breaker, Ramsay Bolton, proves to be much more straight-laced in person, and refuses. “Sorry. It’s a dangerous game.” Many more bow out, but a few brave souls are up to the challenge.

Liam Cunningham — Ser Davos Seaworth

Cunningham gives it a try, but immediately backtracks. “[A character] will be silenced, that’s a truth,” he says, before realizing he’s given away a major plot point. He tries again. “Longclaw will… oh no, I can’t be doing this, because that’s ahead of the f–king thing!” He and Tom Wlaschiha — who, like his character, Jaqen H’ghar, chooses to remain enigmatic — laugh as Cunningham tries to wrap his head around the game. He gives it one more go. “Davos will end up on the f–king throne!” Pretty sure that’s a lie, but then nobody — even apparently, the show’s original creator, George R.R. Martin — knows what happens in Season 7.

Isaac Hempstead Wright and Dean-Charles Chapman — Bran Stark and Tommen Baratheon

“Oh, I love this game!” shouts Wright, and he guides Chapman — who has never played — through it. Even so, he nearly gives away a huge spoiler, and looks around the room guiltily. “There’s a sniper hidden in that cupboard,” he says (borrowing a joke from Ser Davos when he appeared on a recent talk show). They decide to split it up.

  • “I fell asleep on set this year,” says Wright.

  • “I broke a bit of the Iron Throne,” says Chapman.

  • “There was a landslide on set,” says Wright.

“Can you guess which?” asks Wright. They all sound true, and he crows, “That’s because they are all true!” Everyone starts laughing. “We’re so bad at this game! Three truths!”

Related: ‘Game of Thrones’ Preview: Cast Teases ‘Most Ferocious and Exciting’ Season Yet

“I have this really comfy blanket to lie on when I’m by the tree,” says Wright of his impromptu nap. “I was warging, and for one of the visions, I had to lie down. I fell asleep, and I can just remember the director saying, ‘And cut!’ And I was like, ‘What? Are we rolling?!’ ‘No, no — we’ve done the scene!’ ‘Oh!’”

The landslide occurred in a quarry called Magheramorne in Northern Ireland. “It’s just rain and sleet and doom,” bemoans Hempstead-Wright. “I don’t think anyone got hurt, but it wrecked a bit of the set.” He laughs. “I wasn’t supposed to say that because of health and safety regulations. Whoops!”

Chapman brought his own landslide to the set. “I was filming this speech scene. I had to sit down and as I sat down, [The Iron Throne] was rolling.” He slipped and a chunk came off, to gasps both from Chapman and the crew. “‘It’s fine,’” he remembers saying, “‘I can glue it back!’ It was bad…”

Sophie Turner — Sansa Stark

Turner knows the game and, after a moment’s thought, whips out her answers.

  • “Ramsay dies.”

  • “Lady Stoneheart returns.”

  • “Arya checks three people off her list.”

Clearly, she knows what she’s doing. Ramsay’s death is eagerly awaited by many, but Westeros is perversely kind to the cruel, so it could easily be truth or a lie. Lady Stoneheart is a prominent character in the books who has been rumored to be appearing on the show for a couple of seasons now, so that could easily be either truth or a lie. As to the third…

Maisie Williams — Arya Stark

“They’re going to be about Arya,” announces Williams, with conviction.

  • “Arya goes to Westeros, back over the sea.”

  • “Arya is in the trailer more times than people have realized, because they don’t realize it’s her.”

  • “Arya doesn’t cross any more names off her list.”

If Star Wars has taught us anything, it’s that apprentices leave before their training is complete, so Arya leaving the Faceless Men with just enough magic to be truly dangerous is very likely. Given that, it’s also possible that she’s wearing someone else’s face in the trailer.

Related: Inside ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6: Readying the Characters for Battle

So, who’s telling the truth about Arya’s list? Are both Turner and Williams lying? There are seven names left on the list, so three is a reasonable number to cross off. (For the record, the remaining names are Cersei, Walder Frey, Melisandre, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr, Ilyn Payne, and The Mountain). Of course, so is zero — if Arya stays in Braavos.

She can’t reveal any more, but Williams urges people to pay attention. “Particularly this year, there are a lot of moments throughout the earlier parts of the season that [Arya] uses in the second half of the series to her advantage. I love that — that you can watch something again and again and again.”

Season 6 of Game of Thrones premieres Sunday, April 24 at 9 p.m. on HBO.