Nicholas Hoult Reveals He Auditioned for Jon Snow in 'Game of Thrones'

Before Nicholas Hoult took on roles such as Hank McCoy/Beast in the X-Men series, Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road, or J.R.R. Tolkien in the new film Tolkien, he was hoping to play the soon-to-be huge part of Jon Snow on Game of Thrones. It’s hard to imagine anyone other than Kit Harington playing the King in the North (and technically of the Seven Kingdoms, if he ever wants it) now, but Hoult was one of the many familiar faces to audition for the role.

Hoult recently spoke to Page Six at the Montclair Film Festival screening of Tolkien, where he revealed he auditioned for the role while he was filming 2010’s Clash of the Titans...at least he thinks he did.

“I think I auditioned for Jon Snow,” Hoult stated. “I remember it because I was filming Clash of the Titans at the time, so I had long hair extensions. They gave me a ponytail and also a very patchy fake tan. So I remember being like, ‘This is probably not what they’re hoping for,’ and it obviously wasn’t.”

Losing out to Harington for the Game of Thrones didn’t seem to be a big deal for Hoult, however, as he admitted that he has only watched the first season of the show. He said he’s waiting to be “laid up in bed with the flu for couple days” to be able to binge-watch the whole thing.

While you won’t see Hoult in the remaining two episodes of Game of Thrones, you can catch him in Tolkien, out May 10, and starring alongside Sansa Stark herself, Sophie Turner, in Dark Phoenix, which premieres on June 7.

This article also appears on Mental Floss.