HBO May Still Have a 'Game of Thrones' Leak Problem: Ian McShane Drops a Season 6 Spoiler

By Cindy Davis | Game of Thrones | March 3, 2016 |

By Cindy Davis | Game of Thrones | March 3, 2016 |

Well, this is amusing. Not a day after HBO’s programming president announced there’d be absolutely no advance screeners sent out to keep a lid on leaks, one of the Season 6 newcomers dropped a spoiler. Ian McShane, who it seems likely won’t be around too long due to his new gig as Wednesday in Bryan Fuller’s American Gods, had already given a hint about his Game of Thrones role — and I must say we did pretty well at guessing what he was talking about — and this time he all but gave it away.

So obviously what I’m about to reveal is spoilerish, ***Spoiler Warning for Season 6 ahead!***

During his appearance on BBC Breakfast, McShane first makes a qualifier that he can’t say anything about Game of Thrones, and moments later does a total spill.

In case you can’t listen at the moment:

“I can give you like one hint. My character is like an ex-warrior who’s become a peacenik. So I have this group, a peaceful, sort of like a cult, peaceful tribe, who have brought back — I bring back a much loved character everybody’s thinking is dead. So, I’ll leave it at that.

Clearly McShane is the priest from this casting call; “A gruff ex-soldier who found religion. Now a no-nonsense rural priest who ministers to the poor of the countryside. He’s salt-of-the-earth man who has weathered many battles.”

But Ian wasn’t done yet…oh no. Later, he added a little more for BBC Radio listeners.

“My character really served, when they asked me and I said — again it was like a one-off, a complete one-off, and again a great excuse to come to England, see mum and dad and before we do Doctor Thorne — the character is like a former warrior who has renounced violence and now leads this peace cult, around…wherever they are…but also, I have nursed a loved character — a much loved character — back to life. And it reintroduces — I won’t say him or her — cause [sounds like McShane says ‘he’]…it’s a character that’s much loved, that everybody thinks has died, and he’s not dead. Me and my band of peace-loving brothers and sisters have nursed him back to life. So it introduces him again.”

(Not too good at dropping that pronoun, are we?)

McShane then asks the host who she thinks it is, and when she says “It could only be the Hound or Jon Snow,” McShane hems and haws about it being a big tease, then says,

“I’ll leave you with that one. I think you might guess which one it is…cause it’s not the latter. It might be the former.

Now, seeing as how we never actually saw Sandor Clegane die, and Rory McCann was spotted staying at a hotel known for putting up GoT actors during Season 6 filming, this confirmation makes perfect sense.

Time to cut off the advance press tour, eh HBO?

Note to Arya: Update list.

Cindy Davis, (Twitter)