Spoilers for Game of Thrones season 4 and 5 ahead. Turn back now!
When Game of Thrones actor Charles Dance announced his character, Tywin Lannister, would be making an appearance in the upcoming fifth season of the show, fan speculation ran wild.
What could is possibly mean!? After all, Tywin Lannister is dead, right? Shot with a crossbow and killed by his son Tyrion while taking a dump on the toilet. Many fans speculated that Dance returning for season five would see his character appear in a flashback scene. It seemed to make perfect sense. After all, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss confirmed that season five will feature the first flashback scenes in the history of the show.
"By making the first season, we set a rule: No prophecies, dreams or flashbacks," said one of the showrunners to film students in Spain. "We failed the first two and this season the third. So yes, this season will finally have flashbacks."
Could Tywin Lannister be featured in one of them?
It turns out the truth of the matter is much less exciting. Speaking with the Daily Beast, Dance revealed his true role in Game of Thrones season five -- a cold, stiff corpse.
True to George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows, Twyin's body is displayed for a week in the Great Sept of Baelor before a procession of knights takes his body west to Casterly Rock. The show will be no different. So Dance is technically in the new season, but barely.
"Well, only my body!" Dance says to the Daily Beast about his appearance in season five. "I don't wake up in the shower having a bad dream about it all."
Also of note from the Daily Beast interview is the tidbit that the show's producers have been actively discussing the possibility of a Game of Thrones film.
So there you have it folks. Tywin is dead and will stay dead, and not even a flashback scene will bring him back. But if Dance won't be appearing in one of the show's flashbacks scenes, who will be?
