Secret sign your Game of Thrones character would be killed off

If a Game of Thrones actor was tapped on the shoulder and told these three words, it meant they were marked for death.

Given the astronomically high death count in Game of Thrones, for an actor, it’s not what one would call stable employment.

With something like 108 main or significant characters among the thousands killed off over the course of six seasons, there’s always a good chance you’re going to get your walking papers.

Sometimes, you have an inkling if your character is dispatched in the books, but for others, there was a secret code you had to watch out for.

Jacob Anderson, the actor who plays Grey Worm, the chief Unsullied and a formidable fighter, told news.com.au he thought he was for certain going to bite it in season five during the fight between his character and the Sons of the Harpy.

Jacob Anderson thought Grey Worm was marked for death

“That year, we got the script in two separate sets so I had to wait weeks to find out if I survived,” Anderson said.

“And people kept saying to me, not knowing what was going to happen, ‘Oh, we’ve got a stab rig for you, and some prosthetics for you’.

“There’s a thing that we were told when I first started that if you get asked to go to prosthetics, you’re probably done.”

You can bet Anderson was rather nervous, thinking Grey Worm had met his maker. Never had three words — “go to prosthetics” — sent such a chill down an actor’s spine.

In the end, Grey Worm survived and Ser Barriston Selmy actor Ian McElhinney got the farewell party instead.

(But don’t worry about McElhinney, he’s doing just fine on Derry Girls.)

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This is happening, kids.

And if Grey Worm had died then, we wouldn’t have had that glorious moment between him and Missandei, when the two lovers, with their sizzling chemistry, finally expressed their affection for each other physically.

You know, given that Grey Worm and all the Unsullied, are castrated.

The intimate scene was in stark contrast to Game of Thrones’ earlier seasons which often depicted sex as violent, or as brutal rape.

“I have always found it very disheartening, and just crap, and it was mostly men, who said it wasn’t possible (for Grey Worm) to have sex.

“Well, then you have a very small imagination if you think sex has to be one thing.

“I’m really glad that people found a good thing in Grey Worm and Missandei. Sex is a spectrum and I’m glad that scene stimulated positive conversation.”

Game of Thrones companion series Thrones 360 starts tonight at 7.30 on Fox8

Game of Thrones returns for its final season on April 15 on Fox Showcase at 11am, with a repeat encore screening at 8.30pm

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