In an interview with Yahoo Singapore, Isaac Hempstead Wright - who plays Bran Stark on Game of Thrones - hinted at the expansive magic powers the young greenseer will wield in the upcoming Season 6. However, it’s Wright’s use of a single word, “earthquake,” that might just prove the most consequential to the future of Westeros.
Though the first trailers for Season 6 showed Bran’s capacity to witness events across time and space, Wright put the expansive extent of his new magic powers in perspective. “Particularly this season, he’s almost read the script,” Wright said. “He knows what’s going on all around the world. So this year, I kind of approached it as if Bran had just watched the show the whole time.”
One of the big open questions is whether Bran’s ability to warg and use Greensight will just allow him to observe events around Westeros or have an actual effect on their outcomes.
The most recent Game of Thrones promo shows the Night’s King grabbing Bran’s arm, confirming once and for all that Bran’s ability to visit different locations and timelines is not just a spectral phenomenon, he can affect and be affected.
In the interview with Yahoo Singapore Wright described his “extraordinary enabling abilities,” suggesting that he’ll be far more than an observer in Season 6.
Here’s where things get really crazy. Though a full quote from the interview was not provided, Yahoo Singapore, paraphrasing Wright, said, “he may even cause an ‘earthquake’ in Westeros.”
This could be figurative language, but there’s another possibility that has long loomed over the conflict between humans and the White Walkers: The Wall could fall. The Wall that divides Westeros in two was erected by Brandon the Builder, the legendary founder of House Stark. While The Wall seems indestructible, legend holds that it can be brought down by the Horn of Joramun, which Mance Rayder and the wildlings searched for in vain.
Could Bran’s magic bring down The Wall? It has a certain poetic justice to it, with a Brandon Stark tearing down what the legendary Brandon Stark had built. It’s also possible that the Night’s King could bring down The Wall in concert with Bran’s powers, whether in a voluntary alliance or by coercion.
It’s widely assumed among dedicated readers of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels - on which Game of Thrones is based - that The Wall will fall before the series ends. If this proves to be true, it would be a hell of a showstopper for Season 6 to end on. And since Game of Thrones has largely ignored the Horn of Joramun (though Samwell does discover an ancient horn on the Fist of the First Men), Bran, with his magic, would be a logical vessel.
Right now it comes down to parsing exactly how Wright meant to use the word “earthquake.” If literal, The Wall could very well fall in Game of Thrones Season 6. Either way, Wright said, “expect lots of magic.”
