Game Of Thrones Star Doesn't Believe Bran And Night King Theory
It's a cool theory (nudge, nudge), but Isaac Hempstead Wright doesn't buy that his character, Bran Stark, is actually the Night King on Game of Thrones.
If you're just hearing about this, here's the gist of the theory: since Bran is the Three-Eyed Raven and capable of traveling through time and inhabiting different bodies, he used his powers to go back to the beginning and stop the White Walkers before they even existed. He would've taken over the body of the first man the Children of the Forest turned into the Night King, but ended up staying there too long, getting stuck. He then would've lived as the Night King in a time loop for thousands of years until the events currently unfolding in Westeros come to pass. That's how he could exist as both Bran and the Night King at the same time.
However, Wright recently told Vulture that the theory is intriguing, but probably not correct.
"I think it's less that they're the same person and more that they're two of the ancient beings of Westeros," he said. "The Three-Eyed Raven has been around for God knows how long, and White Walkers have been reported since the beginning of time. As we've seen, they were created by the Children of the Forest, so we can't get much more ancient than that. Perhaps we can think of it as these are two characters with a huge amount of power, but one is a Frankenstein's monster who is driven by nothing but hatred and violence. Then there's Bran, who uses his powers for good. I want to find out why the Night King is so obsessed with destroying mankind. We'll see whether they have any kind of explanations in the next season. Hopefully we'll find out cool stuff about both of those characters."
It's worth pointing out that Wright seems to imply that he doesn't know the full story just yet. Game of Thrones showrunners often keep the cast in the dark about future storylines until just before the new season starts shooting. The only people who really know the answer are David Benioff and Dan Weiss. Still, you kind of have to think they would've given Wright a heads up about such a pivotal development, one that would probably affect how he would portray Bran in the seasons leading up to that reveal. Of course, Bran definitely was noticeably icier in season 7.
We'll have a lot of time to keep looking for clues. It's possible that the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones won't arrive until 2019. Meanwhile, check out the ending of season 7 explained.