Game of Thrones: Ser Jorah actor Iain Glen found out his fate before even reading his scripts

Game of Thrones has always kept its actors on their toes. No fate was certain. Fans knew that after poor Sean Bean lost his head before the audience realized Ned was never going to be the main character. Now that the Battle for Winterfell is over, some are speculating about the future, while others are explaining that they’d worked out a system for determining what was happening with their characters. Iain Glen, the soon-to-be-Batman actor that plays Ser Jorah Mormont, falls into both categories.

** WARNING: Spoilers from the Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night” follow **

Jorah valiantly fell to the undead army of the Night King after defending Dany with his life. It was a fitting death for the knight, who’d laid it all on the line for his queen. Speaking to EW, Glen explained that he found out his character’s fate without even reading the scripts for the final season: it was all in the cast list.

“Your best indication of what happens is they always list the cast on the first page of each script,” the actor said. “I think all six came together at once. First script, yeah, I’m in that one. Second, yeah, I’m in that one. Third, I’m in that one. Fourth, yeah I’m that one — just being a corpse, but I didn’t know that yet. Then fifth, no, I’m not there. Sixth one: Oh no! So I knew I definitely died.”

Process of elimination is a tough way to find out your character — who’s been a cornerstone of Game of Thrones since its pilot episode — has passed away, but when Glen finally read his death scene, it sat well with him. “When I read the nature of his demise it felt right. It was the right conclusion,” Glen said. But the fact that this isn’t his last episode raises an interesting point.

If he’s appearing in episode four, does that mean that there will be a massive funeral scene memorializing all that fell to the wights during the Battle of Winterfell? Will Dany honor her fallen friend and closest advisor with a eulogy before having her dragons give him one hell of a viking funeral? It seems that if the corpses will be on display, then at least some of the episode will be devoted to mourning — which isn’t something the show does often. However, with such a bloody conflict to clean up, it is perhaps inevitable.

Funeral or not, Game of Thrones returns for the fourth episode of its final season on May 5.