SPOILERS for Sunday’s episode of Game of Thrones, “Eastwatch.”

I could easily write about five hundred pages solely about how the showrunners are really f–king up the emotions in this season. I understand that they’ve been told the broad strokes by George RR Martin, and they’re trying to further the plot, but they’ve forgotten how to ground the reunions with the proper emotional beats. A great example: we needed to see Tyrion and Bronn reunite, however briefly. We needed to really have Jon Snow take a beat and acknowledge that Brandon and Arya are alive and well and back at Winterfell and that he has feelings about it. One thing they sort of didn’t f–k up though: the return of Gendry. We knew he would be coming back (he went to the premiere), but our favorite Baratheon bastard really got his moment to re-introduce the character. Anyway, the actor – Joe Dempsie – sat down with EW to talk about his triumphant return.

What he was told when he left the show: “After season 3, [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] told me Gendry is going to go off a little bit. It was always in their minds that he’d come back. I didn’t keep in close contact with them during the intervening years because I like David and Dan a lot and I didn’t want them to think there was some other motive [in reaching out]; that I was trying to wrangle my job back. So I kind of just left it. And Thrones, you understand, is bigger than any one of us. If you’re part of it, great. If not, you just get over it.

What fans say to him: “What’s happening with Gendry?” became part of my daily life, answering the question. And I could say with clear conscious that I had no idea. It’s been a meme-a-week, but I’m partly responsible for that by tweeting “still rowing” at the end of season 4. They even worked a reference into the show of that… There are some real crowd-pleasing moments this season.

Gendry is restless: “He’d gone back to his old life, but there’s a restlessness in him. He bored of safety and wants adventure and he’s itching to get involved and then an opportunity presents itself. He’s got his father’s blood in him and he’s a natural born fighter.

Game of Thrones: Avengers. “That’s the main thing, the selfish actor part of you reads that and goes, “That’s going to be great! I’m going to look cool doing that!” Part of this feels like Avengers Assemble coming together, this ill-advised mission North of the Wall. When you imagine wanting to be an actor, these are the sort of pinch-yourself moments. The Gendry-Davos scenes are really good. He’s sort of a surrogate son and they’re both from the same place. Davos kind of knows what Gendry has been through. And Gendry has never had a father figure in his life. They’re both still slightly scared and slightly fancy her, almost like they both have the same [evil] ex-girlfriend. His return and his role have been an interesting addition to the gang. You do find out a little more about how potentially scarred by the Melisandre experience he is. He’s not over it yet.

His prediction: “If he survives [the North of the Wall mission]… I would assume … I know he’s illegitimate, the last known son of the Baratheon blood line. I don’t know. He doesn’t seem like the kind of character who would make a play for power. But then maybe it could be something foisted upon him reluctantly…Well, obviously [he could be on the Iron Throne]! Everyone is like: “Where do you want to see your character?” That seems fairly unlikely. I feel like him and Jon Snow are forming a bond over the bastards thing. They’re also two of the inherently good characters in the series. Not that that protects you, but I think they’re quite a formidable force — if they can carry on cooperating…

[From EW]

Spoiler: I’ve read from some of the set leaks that Gendry does survive whatever happens north of the wall, so take that information however you want. I don’t think Gendry will serve much purpose beyond “friend to Davos and Jon Snow” in general though – like, there would be no movement to have Gendry on the throne, even if he’s one of the most decent characters on the show. Still… I wish Gendry would head over to Winterfell and marry a Stark girl. Arya and Gendry could have Baratheon-Stark babies!

Photos courtesy of WENN.