Kit Harington has said he “loved” his character’s final scene in Game Of Thrones and revealed it reduced him to tears.
The British actor played Jon Snow for eight seasons on HBO’s fantasy epic, which came to a controversial end earlier this year.
While fans remain divided over the show’s conclusion, Harington said he was happy with Jon’s final moments, which saw him going beyond the Wall with the so-called “free folk”.
Harington told the Hollywood Reporter: “I loved it. When I read it, that bit really made me cry. What really made me cry was on the paper: ‘End of Game of Thrones’.
“But as far as an ending for Jon Snow, this character that I loved for so many years and had grown so close to, and had meant so much to me … seeing him go beyond the Wall back to something true, something honest, something pure with these people he was always told he belongs with — the Free Folk — it felt to me like he was finally free.”
The final episode sees Jon killing his love interest, Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen, who goes mad with power after seizing the Iron Throne.
Harington added: “As much as he (Jon) had done a horrible thing, as much as he had felt that pain, the actual ending for him was finally being released.”
Earlier in Game Of Thrones’ final season, the forces of the living faced off against the forces of the dead, led by the Night King.
After one of the most lavishly produced battle scenes in television history, Maisie Williams’ Arya Stark killed the Night King.
The twist was a shock to many fans, who had long predicted Jon would be the one to vanquish the threat posed by the dead.
Harington admitted to secretly wishing he had been the one to wield the knife.
He said: “I think I felt like everyone else did, in that it had been set up for a long time, and then I didn’t get to do it. But I was so happy for Maisie and Arya. I was secretly like, ‘I wanted to do that!’.”