Game of Thrones has shown some pretty gruesome and sad deaths throughout its run, but few have been more shocking than the death of Ned Stark. Ned's death was so jarring to fans that some believed it never happened and even attempted to analyze his mouth movements to see if the character uttered any clues regarding where he might actually be. Sean Bean may not know the full details of being a warg, but he does know what Ned was saying in his final moments. According to Bean, Ned was murmuring a short prayer:
I couldn't be too specific, because I don't know if religion [like that] was around in those days, whatever they were. I just thought, 'What would you do if this were really gonna happen?' You probably would pray. You probably would murmur some words and you'd keep it quiet. You'd keep it to yourself It's quite subtle in that many people wouldn't pick it up. It was an interesting thing to do for me at that point. There's not much you can do really, you've got your head on a block. That's about the only thing you can do is murmur."
Sean Bean said Ned Stark's final moments were spent praying, although he admitted he kept wording vague as he didn't know if that was actually a thing. Luckily for Bean, Ned's observance of the Old Gods of the Forest falls within the character's canon, so it's not like his revelation just destroyed everything fans knew about this Game of Thrones character. Unfortunately, Bean's revelation does definitely poke some holes in other speculation regarding the character, especially the folks who believe he warged out of his body to survive. Bean's quote also seems to imply the decision was his to implement the silent prayer, which would drastically decrease the chance the words are relevant somewhere later on in the series' plot.
Sean Bean's answer is rather anti-climatic considering the aforementioned wild theories that assumed his final words meant something else, but it does shut the door on some speculation for Game of Thrones final season. Bean's death appears to be final, and Bean has backed that up by confirming to Huffington Post that HBO has not reached out to him about reprising the role. That's not to say the network couldn't sneak him on-set in the eleventh hour of production for some quick appearance, but if HBO did that, it likely wouldn't be tied to that little prayer he muttered.
Game of Thrones will air its final Season 8 on HBO sometime in 2019. Fans can distract themselves in the meantime with a whole lot of new television featured on our midseason premiere guide that will make the countdown to 2019 fly by. HBO will have plenty of great things to watch in the meantime, including Bill Hader's Barry and an adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, both of which look amazing. For more on Game of Thrones news, be sure to check out what Maisie Williams thought after reading the show's finale, and her response to the allegations the series is filming multiple endings.
