NOTE: Spoilers for season 6, episode 5
Game of Thrones is far and away ahead of the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R R Martin, and viewers discovered with this week's episode just why Hodor is the way he is in a reveal that has been hinted at in earlier episodes of this sixth season.
Warging without the Three Eyed Raven by his side, Bran unwittingly led the Night King and his incredible army of White Walkers straight to his door, meaning his group would have to make their escape as soon as possible.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't move quite quickly enough and the army was on their doorstep before very long at all. As they arrived, Meera and Hodor failed to wake Bran and the Raven who were warging at King's Landing, but as Bran heard Meera's voice in the distance, he was forced to warg into young Hodor - then named Wylis - causing Hodor to fit on the ground and his present-day self to 'hold the door' whilst Meera and Bran made their escape.
Young Wylis slurred the words 'Hold the door', which eventually morphed into 'Hodor' as he lay fitting on the ground, before Hodor in the present-day was overpowered and seemingly died as the White Walkers tore him apart.
Speaking to IGN, executive producer David Benioff revealed how he, fellow executive producer D.B. Weiss and writer George Martin had a meeting to discuss some of the plot they'd be following going forward which wasn't yet in any of the books.
Benioff explained: "We had this meeting with George Martin where we're trying to get as much information as possible out of him, and probably the most shocking revelation he had for us was when he told us the origin of Hodor and how the name came about.
"I just remember Dan and I looking at each other when he said that and just being like, 'Holy s**t'."
Weiss added: "Even sitting in a hotel room having someone tell you this was going to happen in the abstract in some way and that 'hold the door' was the origin of the name Hodor, we just thought that was a really, really heart-breaking idea."
Meanwhile, actor Kristian Nairn opened up about the scene and when he read it for the first time.
"I had tears in my eyes," he told EW. "I don't see myself on screen, I see Hodor. I always talk about him in the third person. I just saw the character die and it was very sad."
Game of Thrones continues next week on Sunday in the US on HBO and on Monday on Sky Atlantic in the UK.
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