8 Long-Overdue Ways "Game Of Thrones" Could Bring Back Gendry

Gendry is coming. Probably. So how are they going to pull this off?

In case you missed it, last week Watchers on the Wall got hold of a photo of Gendry – aka Joe Dempsie – arriving at Belfast airport.

Watchers on the Wall / Via watchersonthewall.com

In Thrones land this usually only means one thing – he's FINALLY coming back to the show! The hood-up look suggests that he didn't really want to be seen, but as Kit Harington knows, it's very hard to spend time in Belfast without being spotted.

So, if this DOES mean Robert Baratheon's bastard is returning to our screens, how exactly will the showrunners go about writing him back in? And will they bother explaining where he's been? As you might expect, the internet has had plenty of theories – here we take a look through some of the more plausible options.

1. He uses his 🔥 blacksmithing skills to arm the Seven Kingdoms with Valyrian steel.

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The one thing we know about the long-lost Baratheon bastard for certain is that he's happiest when there's a sizeable tool in his hand. Until he was forced to flee King's Landing in Season 1 he trained under master armourer Tobho Mott, and being a blacksmith was the only thing he knew.

Since Jon Snow's antics at Hardhome (below) we know that, along with dragonglass, Valyrian Steel is the only thing that can kill a White Walker. So it would make sense that to properly prepare for the War for the Dawn, any army would need all the Valyrian steel they could get their hands on, and Gendry (and his tool) might just be the answer.

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Of course as far as we're aware Gendry is unable to forge Valryian steel himself – in fact it's suggested that the secret was totally lost after the Doom of Valyria wiped out the entire civilisation. So first he would need someone to tell him how to do it. Someone wise. Someone who understands the horrors to come. Someone who, let's say, currently has access to ALL THE BOOKS in the world.

That's right – this could well be Samwell Tarly's time to shine. We know he's gone to the Citadel to become a maester in order to help out his BFF Jon Snow, so teaming up with Gendry to save the day with a shit-ton of Valyrian steel would make a lot of sense.

It's also hinted that you need dragon fire to forge Valyrian steel – so a potential Jon/Dany alliance, aided by Sam, Ser Davos, and Varys (the last two both being aware of Gendry's parentage) would be well advised to track down a decent blacksmith.

2. Six seasons later, he could finally make it to the Wall to join the Night's Watch.

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It may be hard to think back to a time when Jaime Lannister had a full complement of hands, and Theon Greyjoy had a full complement of penises, but back in Season 1 Gendry was sold to the Night's Watch by his master in an effort to protect him from Cersei's bastard-cull.

For various reasons their journey north was cut short in the Riverlands, which ultimately resulted in Gendry going MIA for what feels like an eternity. However, now that Gendry is aware of his true parentage and knows that Cersei would do almost anything to see him dead, it would be a pretty shrewd move for him to take the Black.

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Not only would he be a long way from King's Landing, but it would also mean he would automatically forfeit any claim he had to either the Iron Throne or Storm's End (the Baratheons' ancestral seat), and therefore have much less of a target on his back.

From a TV perspective this would also help to put some focus back on the Wall. Since Jon marched south, new Lord Commander Eddison Tollett is the only member of the Watch that we're particularly familiar with – though Bran and Meera would appear to be just to the north. Gendry's arrival would at least give the showrunners a little more to work with at Castle Black now that Sam and Jon are long gone.

This theory is definitely less likely than the blacksmith option, but we learned to expect the unexpected on this show a long time ago.

3. Cersei finally tracks him down, and his return is depressingly short-lived.

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Not unlike James Corden, Cersei now finds herself with power she could once only have dreamed of, and the general public are rightly terrified. As she blew up the Sept of Baelor last season it became clear that anyone who looked at Cersei the wrong way from now on would soon be dead as shit.

Though a war with an invading army may soon take up most of her time, in the short term she's surely going to try to shore up her power, and this could well include getting rid of anyone who could be a threat – including her late husband's bastard children.

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As we saw with both Osha (above) and Rickon Stark last season, the show is not above bringing back long-forgotten characters only to kill them off almost immediately. Rickon didn't even have any lines in Season 6 before a Ramsay Bolton arrow took him down.

So while the idea of Gendry coming back next season is enough to make Tumblr do a little wee of excitement, that doesn't mean he won't end up very dead soon thereafter. And if this is the case, Cersei might just be the woman to do the job.

4. Gendry rejoins the Brotherhood Without Banners (despite the fact they totally fucked him over in Season 3).

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After a couple of seasons alongside Gendry on the SS Abandoned Plotlines, Season 6 saw the overdue return of Thoros of Myr, Beric Dondarrion, and the rest of the Brotherhood Without Banners. What they're up to, we're not entirely sure, but having just recruited the back-from-the-almost-dead Hound, they certainly seem to have a plan.

Whether Gendry could ever forgive the Brotherhood for selling him to Melisandre remains to be seen. This theory is more popular among book-readers, as book Gendry remains with the Brotherhood – but it's becoming increasingly clear that the books and show are two entirely different entities these days.

5. He's recruited by Dany to join her band/coalition.

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If you didn't punch the air with joy as Dany and her motley crew sailed towards Westeros in the closing moments of Season 6 you are either a) Cersei Lannister, or b) wrong. She finally found some ships, and she's on her way to do a bit of conquering.

Thanks to her newfound supporters, she's pretty much already taken control of Dorne and the Reach before making landfall. On top of that she's got significant support from the Iron Islands, and at least one Lannister on her side. Not a bad start.

Add to that a potential (and much anticipated) alliance with the new King in the North – which could bring the Vale with it – and there's barely anywhere left to conquer.

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It's worth remembering at this point that we know of only three people (who are alive) who know that Gendry was the illegitimate son of Robert Baratheon – Melisandre, Ser Davos, and Varys.

If Daenerys was looking to shore up support in the Stormlands, what better way than having an actual son of the former king to take over? Yes, Gendry may be a bastard, but with Dany calling herself the rightful queen, she could legitimise him just as Stannis offered to legitimise Jon Snow.

If anyone can track down Gendry it's Varys – that's all working under the assumption that Dany is totally OK with the fact that Varys was once behind the plot to assassinate her. Forgive and forget, right?

6. He'll reunite with Arya, basically save her soul, and Tumblr will actually explode.

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Ignoring the fact that Arya was basically a child and it was all a bit creepy, people have been shipping these two since the moment they met (remember "You'd be my lady" from Season 3?). Since their separation Arya has changed beyond recognition – the mouthy little tomboy has turned into a cold-blooded killer. I wasn't pleasant to be around during puberty, but even I drew the line at baking my enemies into pies.

If these two were to reunite, there's no guarantee that Gendry would feel the same way about Arya 2.0. She wants revenge on everyone who's ever wronged her. Gendry just wants an easy life/to not be murdered. So perhaps their reunion will be the thing that pulls Arya back from the brink. Basically, think Buffy.

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In the Season 6 finale of Buffy, a grief-stricken Willow became an evil goth and decided to end the world after her girlfriend was killed. As you do. Just as she's about to get all apocalypse-y, along comes BFF Xander who defeats her by telling her he loves her. Yay for love, amirite?

Arya may not be looking to end the world anytime soon, but she's definitely lost the innocence of youth – the moral compass instilled in her by her father is more than a little wayward of late. Here's hoping all it takes is Gendry's excellent abs to set her straight.

7. Melisandre, running low on king's blood, tracks him down for ~reasons~.

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It was so long ago and fleeting that you may have forgotten, but Mel and Gendry TOTALLY BANGED. She used his king's blood to do weird magical shit with leeches. This eventually caused the deaths of Robb, Joffrey, and Balon Greyjoy. Either that or they would have died anyway and she just took the credit.

Last we saw, Mel had been banished by Jon for burning Shireen alive for similarly magical reasons when she was still on Team Stannis, so could she bump into Gendry somewhere around the Riverlands? She once told Arya that she would meet her again, so maybe there'll be one giant reunion with Mel, Gendry, Arya, and the Brotherhood. That'd be nice.

8. Or, maybe Dany's fleet just finds his rotting corpse floating around the Narrow Sea in a rowing boat.

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We had to make sure all the bases were covered.