The Night King is a major character on Game of Thrones, but who is he? The show’s supernatural villain spooks and shocks viewers in costume, which is why it’s so weird to think of him as just a regular British actor. Richard Brake, 52, plays the evil king on the show, although you wouldn’t know it if you passed him on the street.

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The series has had many villains during its seven season run — but none have been as terrifying as the Night King. Could Joffrey Baratheon wake up the dead? Could Ramsay Bolton kill a dragon? Um, no.

night king
HBO, Getty Images

“It’s actually molded off of my face — way back a few years ago we did a cast of me, and they basically created prosthetics to go onto my face, my arms as well and pretty much down to my chest,” Richard explained about how he gets into character. “It seems like you just pop a mask on, but it’s incredibly much more detailed.” Keep scrolling to learn more about the Night King!

Why would Bran be the Night King?

We hope you didn’t think you’d get through this post without reading complicated fan theories. Okay, so there’s a group of GoT fans that are convinced Bran — aka Brandon Stark aka the Three-Eyed Raven — is actually the Night King. We know, crazy right? Well, it turns out they might be on to something.

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Reddit user turm0il26 recently made the argument that Bran Stark is the Night King himself. The theory explains that Bran traveled back in time to warg his way into the man who later became the Night King, with the goal of stopping the Children of the Forest from creating the White Walkers in the first place. Confused? That’s understandable since the theory isn’t exactly foolproof, but basically, they think Bran got trapped in the body of the first man who became a White Walker.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQMKT6mA_g

How was the Night King made?

Okay, so like in the clip above from Season 6, Bran saw how the Children of the Forest made the first White Walker. We are going off the idea that the first White Walker is the Night King (until the series tells us differently). The Children took a piece of dragon glass and drove it into the man’s heart thus making him a Walker and turning his eyes an icy blue. Chills.

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Where did the Night King get the chains?

Literally… this is the question that’s plaguing fans everywhere. In the last episode, we witnessed the Walkers pulling Viserion (RIP) out of the frozen lake after he fell to his death at the hands of the Night King. The final scene ended with him opening his eyes to reveal icy blue irises thus showing he is now a wight. But, where did the chains come from? And also, how did they swim to the bottom of the lake and pull a dead dragon to the top? So. Many. Questions.

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Okay, we’re going to chalk this up to a plot-hole because there’s no reasonable answer. Sure, some have said they were leftover from a shipwreck, but there’s no way to prove that. Honestly, if we can accept fire-breathing dragons, an army of the dead, and an incestual relationship, can’t we just accept that chains are easily accessible?