Director David Nutter on whether Stannis is really dead

“Mother’s Mercy,” the Season 5 finale of Game of Thrones, did the show’s reputation for killing off important characters proud. Myrcella Baratheon, the incestuous daughter of Jaime and Cersei Lannister, died in her father’s arms, a victim of poisoning, while Jon Snow was brutally stabbed to death by a group of mutinous Night’s Watchmen. Stannis Baratheon, meanwhile, presumably died at the hands of Brienne of Tarth, but his death wasn’t actually shown on screen. The decision to cut away right before Brienne delivered the killing blow has led some fans to believe that Stannis isn’t actually dead.

That’s an opinion bolstered by an Entertainment Weekly interview with executive producer Dan Weiss. When talking about the (apparently final) death of Jon Snow, Weiss said, “In a show, everybody sees it for what it is. It’s that rule: ‘If don’t see the body then they’re not really dead.’” We didn’t see Stannis’ body, so does that mean he’s not really dead?

The Wall Street Journal sat down with David Nutter to discuss this and other questions. Nutter is one of the show’s most noted directors, as he helmed not only “Mother’s Mercy,” but also “The Dance of Dragons” and Season 3’s “The Rains of Castemere,” aka “The One with the Red Wedding.” Here’s what he had to say when asked why he didn’t show Stannis’ death onscreen:

I think there was a real sense of inevitability toward what was going to happen, and I think anything beyond that would have been somewhat gratuitous. I know for us to say that about “Game of Thrones,” that’s an interesting way to put it, but you could really get a sense that Stannis knew that his time had come, and there was nothing else really to say, nothing else really to do. I always believe that editing is the kind of thing where you want to cut into a scene a little bit after it starts and get out before it ends. This is exactly what we did in this sequence, and I thought it worked perfectly.

Okay, so Nutter never actually comes out and says “Stannis is dead,” but this does reveal that his reasons for cutting away had more to do with his editing philosophy than with trying to keep the character’s potential survival under wraps. Personally, I thought the scene clearly got across the idea that Brienne executed Stannis, and that it did it in a tasteful way. There was poignancy in the way Stannis was resigned to his fate, and the decision to not actually show the blade make contact with his neck avoided gratuity, which was appreciated in an episode that featured a lot of gruesome deaths (I still wake up screaming thinking about how Meryn Trant died).

Still, I understand why some viewers are holding out hope that Stannis lived. After all, Syrio Forel has presumably been dead for years, but debates still rage over his survival, all because we never saw the body. Also, Nutter revealed to the Journal that he didn’t even film any shots of Brienne’s sword going into Stannis, not even for safety. “Dave and Dan were very clear with how they wanted the scene dealt with and handled, and I was there to provide that for them,” he said. If Dan Weiss subscribes to a “no body, no death” philosophy, what should we read into his instructions to Nutter?

So, to sum up, David Nutter’s interview is unlikely to conclusively settle any debates about whether Stannis died in the season finale. See you in Season 6 for answers.

Speaking of Season 6, it ends up that David Nutter won’t be a part of it. Apparently, he wants a little break from the show after injuring his knee while filming the Dany-Drogon scene in Daznak’s Pit, one of the season’s most dramatic moments. He doesn’t reveal exactly how he hurt his knee, but it required him to get partial knee replacement surgery, so taking some time off is understandable. However, Nutter also said that “if they want me back for season seven, I’ll be back with bells on.”

• Published on 06/19/2015 at 2:00 PM CDT
• Last updated on 06/19/2015 at 3:29 PM CDT