Will return in GoT Season 6
Wright says he will be returning to Game of Thrones season 6 as Bran Stark.
I can’t say a lot, but I am back this season, and it’s going to get particularly interesting with Bran. He has some interesting visions.
He also talks about whether Jon Snow will come back;
I wish he would because I love Kit and because the character’s so cool. Who knows? We start filming series six at the end of this month [July] so we’ll see.
Absent for season five
Nairn confirms that his character, Hodor, will be absent for the fifth season of Game of Thrones. He says the character of Bran Stark, played by Isaac Hempstead-Wright, a son of the high-born Stark family who is crippled and is carried by Hodor, will also be absent:
We’re not actually in Season Five, by the way. We have a season off. We have a year’s hiatus … Solely because, I imagine, our storyline is up to the end of the books. … So I get a year off now to do Rave of Thrones and gallivant all over the world.
The absence is not confirmed with Hempstead-Wright.
‘Hardest role in the show’
Nairn says playing a character with only one line – ‘Hodor’ – is a challenge in acting terms:
I did ask myself, ‘How am I’m going to do this?’ I knew it was going to be challenging. People’s concept of it is either that it’s the easiest role because of the lines, or if they know anything about acting they think it’s the hardest role for the same reason. I do sometimes really have to snap myself back into reality after filming. I really do love Hodor, he’s a lot of fun to play.
Carrying Hempstead-Wright, who plays the paraplegic character Bran Stark, is also becoming physically challenging as the child actor, who was 11 when the series started, develops:
I had a little trouble this season. I wouldn’t say Isaac’s heavy, but you can’t just shrug it off now. He could have sat in my arms all day in season one, but now we have to set up the shots differently. It’s a pain in the back, really.
The Pointy End
Nairn’s character, Hodor, is shown in a full-frontal nude scene in season one, episode eight, The Pointy End. Bran Stark, played by Hempstead-Wright, and the wildling Osha, played by Tena, are discussing the ‘Old Gods’ worshipped by the people of northern Westeros when Hodor appears naked after bathing in a nearby pool and then forgetting to dress.