Kit Harington Explains What Happened to His Scrapped 'Game of Thrones' Spinoff
In the five years since Game of Thrones has been off the air, Kit Harington has managed to professionally distance himself from the massively popular fantasy series that skyrocketed him to fame. The 37-year-old is starring in the third season of HBO's Industry, and he currently appears in the West End production of the Tony-nominated Slave Play.
Yet, in June 2022, George R. R. Martin revealed that a Jon Snow spin-off series titled Snow was in early development with Harington seemingly onboard, despite the fact that he seemed like the cast member who was most ready to leave his character in the rearview. It never came to fruition, as Harington revealed earlier this year that the team "couldn’t find the right story to tell." And in a new GQ Hype interview published on Monday, he elaborated on that decision.
“I don’t really want to say, because it starts a whole thing," Harington said, when asked what the proposed storyline was going to be. "What I can tell you is it was HBO that came to me and said, 'Would you consider this?' My first reaction was no. And then I thought there could be an interesting and important story about the soldier after the war. I felt that there might be something left to say and a story left to tell in a pretty limited way."
He explained that they spent "a couple of years back and forth developing" the story, but nothing got them excited enough to move forward with the project. "In the end, I kind of backed out and said, ‘I think if we push this any further and keep developing it we could end up with something that's not good. And that's the last thing we all want,'" he admitted.
When asked if there was a part of him that was hesitant to say goodbye to Jon Snow for good, akin to reaching out to an ex, Harington conceded that there was "a lot of baggage that goes with it," and that may have been part of the problem.
"In some ways, you need to divorce completely from this previous thing, and we're only a few years after it," he continued. "The role will always be just such a significant factor of my life. It might very well be the biggest, most important piece of work I do. I met my wife on it. I have kids from it. Have some lifelong friends from it. I'm recognized in the street because of it."
“[But] it was also working against what I'm trying to do, which is separate myself from [the show]," Harington added. "By still being with it, it [would be] very hard to ask people to see you as something else. And it's kind of essential to do my job, for people to come and see me and not see Jon Snow."
Though, while some fans may be crestfallen that we may have seen the last of Jon Snow, on the plus side, the Game of Thrones universe is still going strong. The prequel House of the Dragon was recently renewed for a third season, and a second spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is heading to HBO in 2025.
