I have some bad news if you were holding out hope for the return of Syrio Forel, the charming swordsman who trained Arya Stark in the first season of Game of Thrones. Maisie Williams has confirmed that he is definitely dead, and she's a bit disappointed, too.
Game of Thrones never flinches from putting grisly deaths front-and-center, which gave some fans - including Williams - hope that Forel survived his heroic clash with Meryn Trant, who had come to claim Arya on behalf of the Lannisters.
"I always was like, 'Oh, no, I feel like he's still alive,'" Williams told IGN. "I always had my own theory that he and Jaqen [the Faceless Man] were the same person."
But when she finally ran the idea by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, they shot it down without hesitation: Forel is dead. "I was like, 'Oh, OK," Williams said, laughing. "So that put that to bed really quickly, but I guess we can all still dream."
At least that means Arya didn't go through all the trouble of revenge killing Trant (and accepting some pretty grim consequences for her vengeance) in Season 5 for nothing.
Season 6 of Game of Thrones will premiere on HBO on April 24, 2016 in the US, and will air on Sky Atlantic the next day in the UK.
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Images: HBO
