Filming on Game of Thrones Season 7 is underway, so there’s been a constant stream of cast members returning to Belfast. But the latest sighting goes far beyond a Sophie Turner or Lena Headey. In fact, the mere appearance of this cast member may represent the biggest Game of Thrones Season 7 spoiler yet.
Gendry is back.
A fan snapped a photo of Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry, at the Belfast airport, presumably returning to the set of Game of Thrones after a three-season absence.
So what does this mean for the plot of Game of Thrones Season 7?
When last we saw Gendry, he was rowing away from Stannis Baratheon’s fortress at Dragonstone, set loose by Davos Seaworth so Melisandre couldn’t sacrifice the young man for her royal blood magic. As a bastard son of King Robert, Gendry represents a serious threat to Queen Cersei’s reign. With Stannis and Renly dead, he’s the only possible Baratheon challenger to her throne.
So will he become a major political power in Game of Thrones Season 7? Has the One True King finally returned to sit upon the Iron Throne and dispel the wicked Queen?
If A Feast for Crows is any indication, we may be looking at little more than a glorified cameo. In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, George R.R. Martin’s epic source material for Game of Thrones, Gendry was last seen smithing at the Inn at the Crossroads, a pivotal location in the show as well. It was at the Inn at the Crossroads that Sansa Stark’s direwolf, Lady, was put to death in Season 1. The Inn at the Crossroads was also where Lady Catelyn Stark arrested Tyrion Lannister, the Brotherhood Without Banners supped before The Hound’s swordfight with Barristan Selmy and Brienne of Tarth picked up the trial of Sansa Stark and Littlefinger, eventually leading her to Sansa’s side. It is a place of meetings, where disparate characters reunite.
We don’t know exactly how Gendry will be reinserted into Game of Thrones, but the Inn at the Crossroads is a good bet. Will he enter the fray, or serve as a timely reminder that not everyone is suited for the game of thrones?
We’ll find out when Game of Thrones returns in 2017.
