Warning: Do not read ahead if you want to avoid spoilers for "Game of Thrones" season six, as well as speculation about upcoming plot lines.
"Game of Thrones" is set to return to HBO on Sunday, April 24. Based on set leaks, casting calls, and context from the book series, we've been able to piece together several major storylines that will be featured in the upcoming season.
From Jon Snow's debated return, to old characters resurfacing, season six is bound to be a doozy. The full-length trailer should be enough to get any fan hyped beyond measure.
This post is full of spoilers, so only read on if you want to learn what your favorite characters will be up to in season six. Scroll down to see what's in store for season six of "Game of Thrones."
Jon Snow's return is looking very likely, if not totally confirmed.
The season five finale showed Jon Snow being brutally stabbed and left to bleed out. Though the trailer has revealed he really is dead, many fans are fiercely positive he will be resurrected and somehow live on.
The strongest theory out there is that we'll see Melisandre, the red priestess, resurrect Jon using blood magic. It fits that her character conveniently arrived at the Wall the same day Jon was attacked, something that isn't engineered in the book plot. Not to mention, the trailer seems to indicate Melisandre and Davos will be teaming up in order to protect Jon's body.
Kit Harington, who plays Jon on the show, has been seenmultipletimes in Belfast, where filming for the Wall and Winterfell primarily takes place. The biggest indicator he'll be back back comes from major set leaks appearing to show Snow on set for a huge battle later on in season six.
Melisandre at the Wall, with or without Jon Snow, is going to get interesting.
Up until now, Melisandre had been operating under the assumption Stannis Baratheon was a prophesied hero called Azor Ahai, marked by the Lord of Light as special.
But Stannis turned out to be a mere mortal, vulnerable and unprotected by any god, and he was killed by Brienne of Tarth in the finale. Fans speculated Stannis's death was a fake-out in the finale, but the director of the episode stated clearly that Stannis was killed. There has been no evidence to the contrary, unlike with Jon Snow.
So Melisandre is without a leader to serve, and she recently burned Shireen, a beloved young girl, alive in front of thousands of men in the name of her Lord of Light. She is at the Wall with Davos Seaworth, Stannis's loyal follower and one of the most moral men in Westeros.
Will season six bring a resolution between these two? Can Melisandre's fire-magic be used in the war against the Others?
In an interview with The New Daily after the season five finale aired, Carice Van Houten, the actress who plays Melisandre, said that "you feel that [Melisandre] is concentrating more and more towards Jon Snow … there are slight hints that something's going to happen."
Season six might be the time when Melisandre realizes her prophesied hero was really Jon Snow all along.
There will be a great Northern battle that is most likely between Ramsay Bolton and Jon Snow.
In the trailer, Melisandre says: "The great victory I saw in the flames, all of it was a lie." She saw visions in the fire, visions of Winterfell being taken by a great army and the Bolton banners falling. Melisandre misinterpreted this to mean Stannis's victory, when it was probably Jon Snow's.
Combining set leaks, behind-the-scenes footage, and snippets from the full trailer, fans know there is a major northern battle taking place this season.
Called the Battle of the Bastards at Winterfell by fans, The Boltons will be fighting against northern houses and the wildlings. Kit Harington (Jon Snow) was photographed on set wearing Stark armor, so it's safe to assume he'll be on the battlefield.
The trailer sighting of Tormund and other wildlings at the battle is what really sealed the deal for us. There's no way wildlings would fight for any "southerner" but Jon.
So what else is going on in the north?
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