'Game of Thrones' Cast Talks Jon Snow, Muppets at NYCC

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The first rule of appearing on a Game of Thrones panel is that you do not talk about Jon Snow. The second rule of appearing on a Game of Thrones panel is that you make a joke about the fact that you don’t talk about Jon Snow. That’s the playbook that Natalie Dormer, Finn Jones and Keisha Castle-Hughes — who play, respectively, Margaery Tyrell, Ser Loras Tyrell and Obara Sand on the blockbuster HBO series — expertly followed when they took the stage at the New York Comic Con on Oct. 8.

Jones in particular took delight in teasing the audience about Snow’s status. “[Jon’s] dead, so you couldn’t possibly work with him anymore,” he slyly told Castle-Hughes as she ruminated an audience question about which character she’d most like to share a scene with. (Not to mention the fact that the Dorne-dwelling Obara and Wall-mounted Jon are currently separated by a couple hundred of miles. But hey, anything’s possible in Westeros!) Okay, so we couldn’t get a real answer about the fate of Jon Snow. But here’s some straight talk the trio did provide in order to tide fans over until Season 6 begins in 2016.

Spoiler Alert!
Not surprisingly, all three were tight-lipped about what to expect from Season 6, when Game of Thrones boldly leaves George R.R. Martin’s book series behind and strikes out on its own narrative trajectory. (Although we do know that the actors aren’t completely in the dark about what’s to come. Not only are they in the process of shooting the next season, but director Jeremy Podeswa previously revealed to Yahoo TV that many of the cast members were given their characters’ season-long story arc in advance.) Still, certain details did slip out. Castle-Hughes, for example, confirmed that she’d definitely be returning for Season 6, which means more Sand Snake action. Meanwhile, Dormer hinted that Margaery and Loras — who are still in Sparrow-enforced captivity — won’t be donning any ornate costumes for a good chunk of the season, suggesting that they’ll instead spend a lot of time in prison garb. Or maybe even nothing at all! When asked by an audience member whether Margaery would ever be able to take Cersei’s Walk of Shame, Dormer smiled and replied, “We’re in dangerous territory if I tell you about that.”

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Dormer vs. Denise
In addition to having a thing for pigs, Kermit the Frog is also clearly a Game of Thrones fan. It hasn’t gone unnoticed in the blogosphere that his post-Miss Piggy rebound girl, Denise, bears a striking resemblance to Dormer. And the actress kind of blames herself for this interloper that’s come between Kermit and Piggy’s eternal love on ABC’s new comedy The Muppets. “When I saw Kermit’s new girlfriend, I was like ‘Maybe I’m a bit responsible for that,’” she told the crowd, explaining that a few seasons ago, she asked showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to insert a line into a scene between Margaery and Sansa, when the fair Tyrell says that, as a child, she was teased about her nose — an insult that the actress often heard in her own life. “I was bulled at school; I used to get told that I had a piggy nose. That line was like sticking two fingers up at the bullies of my childhood. And if you watch that scene, you’ll hear that I even do a pig noise! I’ve already made the comparison of my nostrils to a pig, so I can’t complain [about Denise].”

Casting Call
As much as the audience misses popular characters when they’re summarily dispatched, their loss is felt tenfold by the cast and crew. Even though he met his end the season before she joined the show, Castle-Hughes remembered weeping when she watched Pedro Pascal — who played Obara’s father, Prince Oberyn — meet his gruesome end at the hands (and fingers) of The Mountain. And both Jones and Dormer agreed that they’d love to see Michelle Fairley reprise her role as Catelyn Stark. (You could tell who in the audience had read the books and who hadn’t based on the reaction after he pitched that idea.) Failing Fairley’s return, Jones said that the actor he’d most like to bring aboard Game of Thrones would be a newbie: Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek. “I’ve just watched all of Mr. Robot and I’d love to see him on Game of Thrones. Maybe he could play somebody on the Wall.” Like, say, a soldier whose body houses Jon Snow’s spirit?

Related: ‘Game of Thrones’: Meet All the New Faces Joining Next Season

This Is the End?
Though he claims not to know what’s in store for Ser Loras, Jones has clearly given a lot of thought to how Game of Thrones as a whole wraps up. “Basically I think there will be a huge battle between Ice and Fire,” he began. “I think Ice and Fire will destroy themselves in this great war, and [humans] will have to dissolve the Iron Throne because they’ll have to use that [steel] to fight [the White Walkers]. [Editor’s Note: This theory assumes that there’s some Valyrian Steel mixed into the Iron Throne, a subject that’s inspired plenty of debate.] A lot of people will die and out of the ashes will come the tree people and they’ll give power back to the people. It’s this idea of regrowth. So Bran, Hodor and maybe Tyrion will be alive, the good guys who give peace back to the realm.” Sounds idyllic. But then Jones remembered that this is Game of Thrones we’re talking about. “It’ll probably just be Littlefinger on the Iron Throne — no hope!” he concluded, with a laugh.

Season 6 of Game of Thrones premieres on HBO in 2016