Why 'Game of Thrones' Fans Are Hopeful That Catelyn Stark Will Return as Lady Stoneheart After All

• As Game of Thrones wraps up its final season, fans are wondering if Lady Stoneheart, a book character who has never appeared in the show, will finally be part of the series.

• During a Q&A at the Radio Times and BFI Festival, Game of Thrones actor Joe Dempsie's comments about his own character's long absence gave fans renewed hope that Lady Stoneheart might be involved in Season 8.

• Jacob Anderson, who plays Grey Worm on the show, however, shot down the idea.

This post contains spoilers for Season 8 of Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones is currently in the midst of its eighth and final season and, with just five episodes to go until the long-awaited series finale, there are, frankly, still a lot of loose ends to tie up.

Some of the loose ends are very show-based (like how will Dany react when she finds out Jon is her nephew and also the rightful Targaryen heir to the Iron Throne?), but others are more book-based and involve elements from A Song of Ice and Fire that haven't made their way into the HBO adaptation—or not yet, at least. One of those book-based lingering questions involves Lady Stoneheart, a character book readers have been hoping to hear from since Season 3's infamous Red Wedding.

Now, a new quote from Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry on the show, is reigniting hope that the character might make an appearance before the show ends for good in May.

Who is Lady Stoneheart?

Lady Stoneheart is, for lack of a better description, Zombie Catelyn Stark. In the books, Catelyn is resurrected by Lord of Light follower Lord Beric Dondarrion after her murder at the Red Wedding. The resurrection involves Beric sacrificing his life for Catelyn's and her reanimated corpse is known as Lady Stoneheart. She plays a pretty significant role in the books, but hasn't appeared in the series at all.

Why do fans think Lady Stoneheart might appear in Season 8?

During a Q&A at Radio Times and BFI Festival, Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry on Game of Thrones, discussed his character's long absence from the show and, in the process, reignited hope among Lady Stoneheart lovers that the character might appear on the series after all.

Of his own character's long hiatus from the show, Dempsie said, per Express:

"They were kind of saying they wanted people to forget about him. And, I think what they underestimated and I think what everyone underestimated, because of the rich mythology that George R.R. Martin has created, this world in which there are family trees which go back thousands of years and political implications of certain relations are so crucial and it leads to endless theorizing. The longer a loose end is left untied, the more conspicuous it gets in Game of Thrones, rather than it just being something that fades from the memory."

This prompted the panel's host to ask: "Lady Stoneheart?"

Will Lady Stoneheart actually appear in Season 8?

Don't get your hopes up too high for an eleventh hour Lady Stoneheart appearance, however.

Jacob Anderson, who plays Grey Worm, was also on the panel and had a simple response to the Lady Stoneheart question: "Give it up!"

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