The role of Jon Snow belongs to Kit Harington.
But, when the 30-year-old actor stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! Monday, Jimmy Kimmel surprised viewers with some footage of Harington trying out for other roles on the series. "I'm glad you're Game of Thrones fans because this wasn't the only part Kit was in the running for. He actually auditioned for a couple other characters on the show—which, now that we know him as Jon Snow, is hard to imagine. But the producers of Game of Thrones, Dan Weiss and David Benioff, gave us his audition tape, and this is exclusive," he said. "In anticipation of the Season 7 premiere this weekend, the exclusive never-before-seen Kit Harington screen tests."
Cut to footage of Harington reading for the roles of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), Aria Stark (Maisie Williams), Ygritte (Rose Leslie), Hodor (Kristian Nairn), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and a White Walker. To stand out, he decided to audition as another fictional literary hero. As the casting director reminded him, "Harry Potter is not in Game of Thrones...Get out!"
Kimmel had a lot of questions about Game of Thrones, returning this Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO. "We don't see them until you guys see them," Harrington said of the future episodes. "I'll see the premiere a few days before you, 'because I'm going down for the premiere on Wednesday."
"How long until you go back to shooting the show?" Kimmel asked. Harington smirked and responded, "That was sly! I don't know. I don't know if I'm back in the show. I can't tell you!"
Kimmel wondered how much trouble Harington would actually be in if he were to share any spoilers about the upcoming season. "Is there a financial penalty that would be associated with it?" he asked. "And if so, how much is it?" But it's not the money Harington worried about—it's feeling the wrath of his bosses. "It's more what David and Dan would do to me," he explained. "They could write some pretty horrific stuff. They could humiliate me in ways I can't [imagine]."
"What I can say about this season is we had a lot of paparazzi following us around when we were in Spain. But, we did fake some scenes. We put together people in situations where we knew the paparazzi were around, so they would take photos that would get onto the internet," he revealed, adding, "What you might see on the internet might not be true. It might be true."
Harington said he filmed three fake scenes that took about five hours each.
"What a pain in the ass!" Kimmel said.