Ciaran Hinds confirmed that his character, Mance Rayder, will be returning on "Game of Thrones" season 5.
Hinds plays the role of the King Beyond the Wall and the character was first introduced in season 3. He appeared again in the final episode of season 4 where he submitted to Stannis but still refused to kneel or bow his head.
In an interview with fan site Ciarán Hinds!, the actor confirmed his return to the hit HBO series. "On Game of Thrones I have not yet been roasted, crucified, slaughtered or whatever they do with people in that show eventually, so I will be coming back for shooting again in the fifth series," Hinds said.
The Irish actor will be back filming in Northern Ireland in August. This is proven by the reports that several members of the Night's Watch were seen in Belfast.
Based on the A Song of Ice and Fire books, the character should have a pretty involved storyline moving forward. However, there were rumors that his story will be scrapped as the people behind the small screen adaptation of "Game of Thrones" were not following the scenes by the book.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the filming of "Game of Thrones" season 5 has started. Web site Winter Is Coming consolidated tweets from various sources claiming that the filming for the next season already started. The show will be shooting until November. The web site added that the production has started in Northern Ireland where most of the sets of the show are located.
"Game of Thrones" season 5 will feature some of the familiar locations in the series. There were reports that the big HBO production is scouting Croatia to be a setting for the fifth season. Reports also claimed that the cast and crew are heading to Iceland to film a very limited amount of daylight hour before transferring to Spain to shoot the Dorne scenes for the popular TV show.
