GoT News

Game of Thrones: Ramsay Bolton actor teases his Jon Snow face-off

Iwan Rheon has wanted this clash to happen for years
BY JAMES HIBBERD


(Helen Sloan/HBO)

The actor behind the biggest villain on Game of Thrones can’t wait for Sunday’s epic “Battle of the Bastards.”

Iwan Rheon, who plays the sadistic Ramsay Bolton on HBO’s hit series, tells EW he’s long wanted his character to face off against Jon Snow.

“Anyone who has asked me, ‘Who would you like Ramsay to meet?’ My answer has always been, ‘Jon Snow,’” Rheon says. “He’s the antithesis of Ramsay. They’re almost a yin and a yang. They both come from such a similar place yet they’re so different. And even though they’re enemies, they’ve both risen so far as bastards, which is almost incomprehensible, and now they’re both here facing each other. They couldn’t be any more different, yet more similar.”

Precisely: Both characters’ fathers are lords of great houses, yet their mothers were low-born (at least allegedly). Both men managed to quickly elevate their status through their wartime actions – Ramsay quite intentionally, driven by his brutally selfish lust for power, and Snow as a byproduct of his instinctual drive to protect others. Now they’re each improbably leading an army on a collision course, with Ramsay’s host totaling many more thousands than Snow’s. The stakes: Ownership of Winterfell, rule of The North, and their very lives.

For more on Sunday’s episode, see our story where director Miguel Sapochnik, and showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss tease up (spoiler free, of course) the big title bout. We also have this post that runs down all the numbers behind the Bastard Bowl. There’s also eight photos from the battle scenes and HBO’s trailer.

And for much more on “Battle of the Bastards,” pick up this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly where we went behind the scenes in Northern Ireland. And be sure to come to EW.com after watching the episode Sunday night, as we’ll have a recap and interviews. I’ll also discuss my time on the “BOB” set on next week’s EW Game of Thrones Weekly podcast. Until then, enjoy the latest podcast episode below.