Game Of Thrones
Sean Bean, as Ned Stark (pictured), in "Game of Thrones" Season 1. Sebastian Croft (not pictured) will reportedly take on the role in a Season 6 flashback scene. HBO

Rumors continue to swirl that Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) will be back alive (in some capacity) in “Game of Thrones” Season 6, but it looks like fans can also look forward to another beloved character’s surprise return to the series – Jon Snow’s dad. The HBO series has reportedly cast the role of a young Ned Stark – who, truthfully, might not even be Jon Snow’s real father – for a flashback scene in the upcoming season.

According to “Game of Thrones” community blog “Watchers on the Wall,” 13-year old Sebastian Croft has been tapped to fill Sean Bean’s big shoes in the role. Of course, those shoes will be a little smaller for Croft, who will play the former King of the North as a young boy in a flashback. The adult version of the character lost his head in Season 1, as all still-mourning fans remember. The Season 6 scene will feature a sparring session between Stark and an older boy.

Despite his young age, Croft is a veteran theater actor who has performed in various productions in the U.K., including West End productions of “Les Miserables,” as Gavroche, and “Matilda,” as Tommy, and the lead role in a national tour of “Oliver!”

So why is the show including the flashback now? Perhaps Season 6 will explore the parentage of Jon Snow. It has long been rumored among fans that Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark are the late-Night’s Watch Lord Commander’s true parents, not Ned Stark and an unknown prostitute. The death (and possible return) of Jon Snow could present an opportunity for the show to either confirm or debunk the popular “R+L=J” theory.

What will the Ned Stark flashback reveal? Fans will have to wait to find out. “Game of Thrones” will return to HBO for Season 6 in the spring of 2016.

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