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A Game of Thrones theory is threatening to upend the fight for the Iron Throne in unexpected ways. ‘Endorsed’ by Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry in the hit HBO fantasy series, the theory suggests that the supporting character might prove to be a major challenger for the throne, based on his secret parentage.

In a Men’s Health interview, Dempsie admitted to finding one theory in particular very intriguing. “I just wanted answers about my character,” he said. “I was the most curious as to what we might find out about Gendry’s parentage. Obviously, we know that he was the bastard of Robert Baratheon, but who might his mover have been?”

He continued, “There’s a line in season one, and it’s a first scene you ever see of Gendry, where he’s looking to Ned and he’s asked about his mother, and he says he doesn’t remember much about her at all, other than the fact that she had yellow hair and she would sing to him. It’s one of those things where you go, “Do they usually write lines that don’t mean anything, or lines that seem to have significance that [are] never addressed again? I was kind of intrigued to see what that might mean, and what impact that might have on Gendry’s clout politically.”

Gendry being the firstborn son of Cersei Lannister would make him a bigger claimant to the Iron Throne than either Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen.

This theory has been posited before, on Reddit. According to a Mashable report, another scene from the show’s first season might back this idea up. When Cersei tries to comfort Catelyn Stark after Bran’s fall and subsequent coma, she says her firstborn was ‘a black haired beauty’ but was stillborn. Each of Cersei’s other children are blonde, because their father is Cersei’s brother, Jaime Lannister and not her husband, Robert Baratheon, who only ever fathered black-haired children.

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will premiere on April 14. The season will consist of six episodes, reportedly of feature length.