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Game of Thrones season 7: Jon Snow's real name apparently confirmed

*Potential spoiler alert*

Roisin O'Connor
Saturday 17 June 2017 13:51 BST
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Kit Harrington as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones S7
Kit Harrington as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones S7

A major Game of Thrones fan theory about Jon's real identity appears to have been confirmed.

A Reddit post claims to show the leaked upcoming new issue of Empire Magazine which includes an article about season 7.

Citing an interview with Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), the article seems to reveal the true name of Jon Snow: Jaehaerys Targaryen.

The image shows text which reads: “As we saw in the last episode of season 6, Bran’s psychic time-travelling ‘green sight’ revealed the true nature of Jon’s birth heritage and his real name.

In the interview, Wright discusses how Bran, who witnessed Ned Stark's sister Lyanna giving birth to Jon Snow, “could change the entire story” with this newfound information.

The name Jaehaerys Targaryen would go in line with a long-running fan theory that Jon Snow is a Targaryen and the legendary "Prince That Was Promised".

The final episode of season 6 – titled after the forthcoming George R.R. Martin book The Winds of Winter – revealed that Jon Snow’s mother was in fact Ned Stark’s sister, Lyanna, and showed her whispering a name to Ned.

Fans used lip-reading to guess the name, and Empire now appears to confirm that they were correct.

Jon Snow would therefore have been named after the longest-reigning Targaryen king from George R.R. Martin’s novels.

The same episode in which Lyanna is revealed as Jon’s mother did not explicitly reveal who his father was.

The most most popular fan theory (‘R+L=J’) suggests that Jon’s parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark.

While this hasn't been confirmed yet in an episode, an HBO family tree revealed the lineage.

Rhaegar was the brother of Daenarys and Viserys and the son of Aerys, the ‘Mad King’. He didn’t have the temper of his father however, was respected, and was a brilliant singer and harp player.

Game of Thrones returns to UK screens on 17 July on Sky Atlantic.

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