There’s a lot of questions we’re hoping we’ll see answered in “Game of Thrones” Season 7. Will Jon find out he’s half Targaryen? Will the Starks reunite? Will Tormund and Brienne get together? Will Gendry finally stop rowing?
We have an answer for one of those at least.
At the “Game of Thrones” premiere in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night, the usual suspects — showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff, Kit Harrington, Sophie Turner and most of the others — were in attendance. But one surprising face made it into the lineup.
That was Joe Dempsie, aka Gendry aka the bastard son of Robert Baratheon.
Winter has arrived at the #GoTPremiereLA. #WinterIsHere and so is @joedempsie. #GoTS7 pic.twitter.com/pLkW4buxhZ
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) July 13, 2017
We haven’t seen Gendry since Season 3, so here’s a bit of a refresher. King Robert, during his reign on the Iron Throne, had many affairs and fathered quite a few bastard children. One of the oldest was Gendry, introduced in Season 1 as an apprentice blacksmith in King’s Landing during Ned Stark’s investigation into the true parentage of Robert’s “son,” the future King Joffrey.
After Robert’s death and Ned’s execution at the hands of Joffrey, Gendry joined up with a Night’s Watch recruiter intending to start over at The Wall. This is the point he met Arya Stark, who was disguised as a boy in order to escape the post-execution purge of her family. After several adventures together, Gendry and Arya parted ways when joined the Brotherhood Without Banners and was then almost immediately sold off to Melisandre, who intended sacrifice him to the Lord of Light in order to put a curse on King Stannis Baratheon’s enemies.
Luckily, before Gendry could be killed, he was sprung by Ser Davos (The Onion Knight, currently in the service of Jon “King in the North” Snow), put on a rowboat, and told to head back to King’s Landing.
And we haven’t seen him since.
Fans have been wondering what happened to him ever since. His character takes a different route than he does in the books, so it’s unclear what was even in store for him. A subtle and simple meme, showing that Gendry has rowing forever has become a part of the “Game of Thrones” fandom.
It’s also become a tradition every year during the “Game of Thrones” finale that Dempsie tweet out what Gendry’s been up to, which usually involves being on a boat.
Still Goin'.
Helps Knowin'…https://t.co/gLM6lQsEd8#GoT— Joe Dempsie (@joedempsie) June 17, 2015
…Life is but a meme. #GoT
— Joe Dempsie (@joedempsie) June 27, 2016
However, with many of the supporting characters killed off — especially after the Season 6 finale — and the show coming to a close, it’s no surprise that we’ll finally find out what our second-favorite bastard has been up to.
Rumors began swirling last year that Dempsie would be returning to the show after a photo of him arriving in Belfast showed up on the internet.
https://twitter.com/YourKingJon/status/775904617314021376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeed.com%2Fcrystalro%2Fguys-its-been-confirmed-that-gendry-will-be-fucking-back
Him showing up at the “Game of Thrones” premiere isn’t exactly concrete confirmation, but when the Los Angeles Times asked him about it, he said he was happy that fans were able to figure it out and keep the love alive.
“Very fortunately, from what I’ve seen it’s been nothing but interest and excitement and some quite witty memes,” Dempsie said.
It’s still unclear what the extent of his role will be in the upcoming season, but to even just see him alive will be a step in the right direction for the normally brutal show. Let’s just hope he makes it out on the other side.