‘Game of Thrones’ S6 Director Talks Jon Snow ‘Cliffhanger,’ Going Off-Book

There may never be another season of television with as much built-in anticipation as Game of Thrones Season 6, both over the fate of Jon Snow and the possibility of revealing George R.R. Martin’s story ahead of time. Now, Season 6 director Jeremy Podeswa opens up ever-so-slightly on either, in the process suggesting there may yet be more to Jon Snow’s story.

Speaking to Gold Derby, Game of Thrones Season 6 director (helming the first two after last season’s “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” and “Kill the Boy”), Podeswa kept predictably mum about Jon Snow’s ultimate fate, but at least offered that its “cliffhanger” wouldn’t disappoint. Whether “cliffhanger” itself implies that the audience doesn’t yet have the facts (HBO has, at length, insisted nothing more to know than “Jon Snow’s dead”), Podeswa said (Via Pajiba):

I have no comment whatsoever. I got nothing. I got nothing. Watch the show, it’s gonna be great. That’s all I can tell you … I think it’s the definition of a cliffhanger, you know, I think it’s — where does the story go from here? I think the audience is dying to know, and uh, I think that’s great. If there’s — there will be a huge anticipation for the beginning of Season 6, so that makes me very excited. I think it was kind of brilliant….but I got nothing to say about it.

And while author George R.R. Martin himself has yet to reveal Jon Snow’s fate, Podeswa spoke to the challenge of adapting Martin’s unpublished material:

Right now…what we’re shooting currently, it’s not based on anything in the book. It’s only based on discussions that the writers have had with George Martin, because…the series has now surpassed the books in terms of what’s available…I think this is going to be a very interesting season, because Season 6, the audience knows is the first time that there is no book that it’s based upon…it’ll be a sort of moot point in terms of divergences, because the entire thing is new.

And I think the audience is going to be very curious and very excited to see where the writers go, and in my opinion, they’ve done a brilliant job of extending the storyline, and taking it somewhere really exciting. Season 6 is really, really strong; the fans are going to love it. Um, but there is certainly going to be a huge amount of anticipation and question about what that’s going to mean.

Elsewhere of Game of Thrones Season 6, screen legend Max von Sydow has been cast as the mysterious Three-Eyed Raven to a returning Bran, while Deadwood alum Ian McShane will also appear in a limited, mysterious role. Apart from a list of directors, debate continually rages as to whether Kit Harington’s Jon Snow will participate in Season 6, even as Harington can clearly be seen in Belfast, and story logistics seemingly confirm scenes set at The Wall next year.

We may yet have an additional two seasons beyond the sixth year to pad out George R.R. Martin’s vision, but what else can we infer of future Game of Thrones from Podeswa’s comments?