Game of Thrones: The Night King Gives Rare Interview

Ladies and gentlemen, Game of Thrones: The Final Season draws near, and while a majority of the cast and crew continue to make the rounds on the review circuit, one character has held his tongue for far too long — the menacing and mysterious Night King. That all changed this week after actor and stuntman Vladimir Furdik, who has portrayed the cool as ice villain (?) since Season 6, sat down with EW to offer a few brief snippets of information a rare interview.

Furdik replaced Richard Brake in Season 6 for reasons unknown to the actor, though the Night King was not his first foray into the realm of the White Walkers. In fact, Furdik portrayed the White Walker Jon Snow cut to dust during Season 5’s Hardhome battle.

“After that, [showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] asked if I’d play the Night King for seasons 6 through 8,” Furdik said. “I never asked why. Maybe they were happy with what I did in season 5.”

Before donning the white crown, Furdik worked as a stuntman on the show and even doubled for Arthur Dayne during the Tower of Joy fight sequence. Now he has his sights set on conquering Westeros, or so it seems. While Furdik obviously refused to divulge much information, he managed to drop a few tidbits that will likely lead to many a YouTube post. Notably, the actor revealed the Night King is looking for something in particular.

“People will see he has a target he wants to kill, and you will find out who that is,” Furdik said. “There’s also that moment [in “Hardhome”] when Jon Snow was on the boat and the Night King looked at him and raised his arms — there’s a similar and even stronger moment between Jon and the Night King this time.”

He also revealed that each director has a different interpretation of who the Night King is. Some want him to play the character with a shade of humanity, while others see him as little more than a cold, bad man who simply wants revenge for his current plight.

“Somebody made him the Night King,” he said. “Nobody knows who he was before — a soldier or part of [nobility]. He never wanted to be the Night King. I think he wants revenge. Everybody in this story has two sides — a bad side and a good side. The Night King only has one side, a bad side.”

As if to put an exclamation point on the rather cryptic interview, when asked if he had an all-time favorite scene of the character, Furdik simply said: “That’s still coming.”

The final season of Game of Thrones likely won’t be our last trip to Westeros, however, as HBO has greenlit a pilot set 1,000 years before the events of the wildly popular sword and sorcery epic. Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehouse have been cast in the prequel series. S.J. Clarkson (The Defenders, Jessica Jones) will direct the pilot.

Game of Thrones season 8 will premiere on April 14 on HBO.