--- title: 'Game of Thrones' Actor: Death Scene Cut from Pilot description: Sir John Standing had an important scene in the pilot that "got cut to nothing". canonical: https://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-27T17:24:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:29:18.321Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Game of Thrones' Actor reveals a Pivotal Death Scene Was Cut From the Pilot og:description: But he still gets a lot of fan mail og:url: https://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb84f0cdf766ac01b/69887ac30a4a22c1439c814f/john-standing-game-of-thrones-scene-pilot-cut.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Opening Night Of "Performing Noel Coward" At The Cafe Carlyle og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Game of Thrones' Actor reveals a Pivotal Death Scene Was Cut From the Pilot twitter:description: But he still gets a lot of fan mail twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb84f0cdf766ac01b/69887ac30a4a22c1439c814f/john-standing-game-of-thrones-scene-pilot-cut.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # _Game of Thrones_ Actor Reveals a Pivotal Death Scene Was Cut From the Pilot > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly Jan 27, 2016 5:24 PM UTC  Actor Sir John Standing performs at the opening night of "Performing Noel Coward" at the Cafe Carlyle on February 23, 2010 in New York City. Actor Sir John Standing performs at the opening night of "Performing Noel Coward" at the Cafe Carlyle on February 23, 2010 in New York City.Dario Cantatore/Getty Images by [Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly Jan 27, 2016 5:24 PM UTC _Game of Thrones_ has shown [hundreds of deaths](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/06/15/poll-which-game-thrones-death-was-most-devastating) throughout its five-season run, but one that’s not depicted on screen is the death of Hand of the King Jon Arryn (Sir John Standing) — the death that, arguably, sets the story’s events into motion. Turns out, Arryn’s death was filmed as part of the HBO fantasy series’ original pilot but later cut, according to Standing. (Warning: spoilers below.) In the HBO show (and in George R. R. Martin’s _A Song of Ice and Fire_ books on which the lavish series is based), Arryn dies, and King Robert Baratheon travels to Winterfell to recruit Ned Stark to replace him as Hand of the King. Stark comes to suspect that Arryn’s death involved foul play. Season 4 watchers learn that Petyr Baelish convinced Arryn’s wife, Lysa, to poison Jon Arryn. But early in the series, suspicion fell elsewhere: the Lannisters. The cut scene of Arryn’s death would suggest at least one Lannister was culpable, according to Standing. In a video interview with Spanish _Game of Thrones_ site [Los Siete Reinos](http://lossietereinos.com/john-standing-el-actor-de-jon-arryn-describe-una-escena-eliminada-del-piloto-que-compartia-con-lena-heady/), the English actor describes his experience filming his character’s death: ”\[The director\] says, ‘I want you to get out of your bed, and I want you to crawl across the room, and I want you to put your hand up, and there’s a bottle of ink on the table. … I want you to take it as though you’re going to write something. The bottle of ink will come crashing down, you’ll be covered in ink. And then the queen, she’ll come in, and she’ll stamp on your fingers, and you’ll die.’” The queen, of course, is Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). “The scene inevitably got cut to nothing,” Standing says, noting that he still gets fanmail… for his role [as a corpse](http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/File:Jon%5FArryn%5Ffuneral%5Fbier.jpg). See the interview above. _Game of Thrones_ season 6 arrives April 24 on HBO. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2016/01/26/game-of-thrones-pilot-jon-arryn) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/"},"headline":"Game of Thrones Actor Reveals a Pivotal Death Scene Was Cut From the Pilot","datePublished":"2016-01-27T17:24:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:29:18.321Z","description":"But he still gets a lot of fan mail","url":"https://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb84f0cdf766ac01b/69887ac30a4a22c1439c814f/john-standing-game-of-thrones-scene-pilot-cut.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Robinson / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb84f0cdf766ac01b/69887ac30a4a22c1439c814f/john-standing-game-of-thrones-scene-pilot-cut.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Opening Night Of \"Performing Noel Coward\" At The Cafe Carlyle","caption":"Actor Sir John Standing performs at the opening night of \"Performing Noel Coward\" at the Cafe Carlyle on February 23, 2010 in New York City.","creditText":"Dario Cantatore/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/","name":"Game of Thrones Actor Reveals a Pivotal Death Scene Was Cut From the Pilot"}}]}] ```