Game of Thrones‘ Isaac Hempstead Wright Has a Poignant Theory About Bran Stark’s Fate

Isaac Hempstead Wright may be sworn to secrecy about the ending of Game of Thrones, but he’s happy to speculate over the fate of his character Bran in the HBO drama’s final season.

In a recent interview with TIME, the 18-year-old actor shared his favorite fan theory about how the time-traveling journey of the young Stark turned Three-Eyed Raven will come to a close — and no, it’s not that he turns out to be the Night King.

“I like the idea that it’s actually a full circle and Bran becomes the Three-Eyed Raven that was in his dreams when he was younger,” Wright said. “I like the idea that it’s a deterministic, destiny driven thing where the old wise man went back in time as the Three-Eyed Raven to tell the young Bran to go north to the cave and it’s a paradox.”

Based on what the old Three-Eyed Raven told Bran about time travel — “The past is already written. The ink is dry” — time in the Thrones universe operates in a closed loop. This means that since Bran cannot change the past through time travel, he can only fulfill it. Bran has always been destined to grow old in order to be able to journey into the past and train his younger self.

“The time has come…for you to become me,” the old Three-Eyed Raven told Bran just before he was killed by the Night King. Perhaps he meant it literally.

However, as Wright said, this would create a paradox as it produces a universe in which the past is dependent on a future that is dependent on the past — i.e., older Bran cannot train himself unless his past self has already become the Three-Eyed Raven, but his past self can’t become the Three-Eyed Raven until older Bran travels back in time to train him.

Nonetheless, it’s an interesting theory. And Wright is definitely open to hearing fans’ thoughts on the matter.

“My favorite fan interactions are always when someone has something to say about the show or some kind of theory,” he said. “Because I’m a big fan of the show as well. I think I speak for the whole cast when I say that we all love this television series as much as everyone else does. So when someone comes up to me and gives me a theory or asks me my opinion on something, I love being able to talk about that.”