Wall and welcoming them into their ranks. Jon learns that his sister Arya is being married to Ramsay Bolton to secure the Bolton hold on Winterfell but in truth, the bride is Jeyne Poole posing as Arya. Jon allows Melisandre to send Mance to rescue her. He later receives a letter from Ramsay claiming that Stannis, who marched on Winterfell, has been defeated and Mance is a prisoner. Ramsay demands hostages, threatening to march on the Wall and kill Jon if he is defied. Jon decides to confront and kill Ramsay himself, openly compromising his neutrality, but he is stabbed by his Night's Watch brothers in a mutiny. Jon's presence in the forthcoming volume The Winds of Winter is uncertain; when asked in 2011 by Entertainment Weekly "Why did you kill Jon Snow?", author Martin responded "Oh, you think he’s dead, do you?" Asked later whether Jon was killed or will survive, Martin responded with a laugh, "I will not comment on that." Family tree TV adaptation Overview Martin told Rolling Stone in 2014 that some early inquiries he received about adapting A Song of Ice and Fire suggested identifying the story's "important character" and focusing on that individual plot line, Jon and Daenerys Targaryen being the two most popular choices. Martin was not interested in sacrificing so much of the overall story. When the pilot for the HBO adaptation went into production years later, one of the first parts cast was Jon, with Kit Harington announced in the role in July 2009. Alfie Allen and Iwan Rheon had also auditioned for the role, and were brought into the show to play Theon Greyjoy and Ramsay Snow instead, respectively. In October 2014, Harington and several other key cast members, all contracted for six seasons of the series, renegotiated their deals to include a potential seventh season and salary increases for seasons five, six, and seven. The Hollywood Reporter called the raises "huge", noting that the deal would make the performers "among the highest-paid actors on cable TV". Deadline Hollywood put the number for season five at "close to $300,000 an episode" for each actor, and The Hollywood Reporter wrote in June 2016 that the performers would each be paid "upward of $500,000 per episode" for seasons seven and the potential eight. In 2017, Harington became one of the highest paid actors on television and may have earned £1.2 million per