Warning: Do not read ahead if you want to avoid spoilers for "Game of Thrones," as well as speculation about upcoming plot lines.
"Game of Thrones" fans were left on the edge of their seats last June, when the fifth season of HBO's smash hit came to a close on a giant cliffhanger finale.
Filming for next season started almost immediately, and with the set location reveals, new casting calls, and analyses of the book series, fans already have a pretty good idea of what's to come.
We've sifted through all the rumors and speculation to find the plot lines that are most likely to come to fruition. Scroll down to see what's in store for season six of "Game of Thrones."
Fans are excited to see the return of some characters that were noticeably absent during season five. Notably: Bran Stark and his companion, Hodor.
Isaac Hempstead Wright, the young actor who plays Bran, confirmed he will be back this season. "It’s going to get particularly interesting with Bran," Wright told Entertainment Weekly. 'He has some interesting visions.”
As EW noted, "Game of Thrones" showrunner David Benioff indicated that by the time we see Bran in the upcoming season, he will have already been training with the mysterious "Three Eyed Raven" he was last seen with.
Benioff once made a comparison between Bran Stark and Luke Skywalker to explain his absence in season five. "It would be far less interesting, after 'The Empire Strikes Back' to have an hour-long movie in between 'Empire' and 'Return of the Jedi' where Luke is training,” Benioff said. “It’s so much cooler to cut from [the] end of 'Empire' to beginning of 'Return,' where he’s become the Jedi."
We'll get to see Bran's new abilities, as well as more of his powerful teacher, the Three-Eyed Raven.
Bran is the only active warg currently on the show, which means he has an advanced ability to enter the minds of animals and humans around him. We learned in season four that he is also a "greenseer," someone who can see into the past and future through cryptic visions.
Bran is coming back, along with his new mentor the Three-Eyed-Raven. Casting announcements were recently made, when Variety confirmed "Max von Sydow will take over the role, which was originated by Struan Rodger in the season four finale of the HBO drama."
Book readers have speculated Bran will play a big part in the coming war against the Others (the supernatural ice humanoids also known as White Walkers) with his talents, and this will likely be unveiled in the coming episodes.
Bran isn't the only Stark who may return to the screen. Rickon may return, too.
Rickon, the often forgotten Stark, is rumored to return in season six. In case you can't remember who Rickon is, he is the youngest Stark child, who named his direwolf Shaggydog.
In both the show and the books, Rickon hasn't done much. Like his brother Bran, we last saw him in season four. Rickon split from Bran and Hodor, and took a different path with Osha — the Wildling woman who is now in service of House Stark. Their plan was to try and get to the Last Hearth, a castle that belonged to a family who had sworn fealty to the Starks.
There has been no word of them since.
But actors Art Parkinson and Natalia Tena, who play Rickon and Osha, respectively, have recently been sighted in Belfast, Ireland, a known filming location for "Game of Thrones" scenes that take place in northern Westeros.
In the book series, it's not clear where Rickon and Osha (spelled Asha in the novels) have been. The last they were mentioned, a loyal Stark follower met Davos Seaworth (Stannis' right hand man) and asked him to find Rickon.
One reader has theorized, based on context clues of the book scene, that Rickon might be hanging out on an island called Skagos, a remote settlement, home to a supposedly cannibal race of men.
Now that is the type of drama season six would be remiss to leave out. With the actors' reappearance in Belfast, there's a chance the world will finally know what Rickon has been up to all this time.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider