Warning: Spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones."
"Game of Thrones" ended its seventh season with the Night King triumphantly riding the back of his undead dragon into Westeros. The army of the dead was finally able to bring the Wall crashing down, and now winter is truly here.
The Night King is the White Walker's powerful leader — an ancient humanoid being created thousands of years ago by the Children of the Forest. Despite his significant role in the series, the Night King (in his undead form) has never uttered a sound onscreen. And, according to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, he never will.
In a 2016 interview with Deadline's Mike Fleming Jr., Benioff and Weiss revealed more about the mysterious chief White Walker.
"We don't think of The Night King as a villain as much as Death [...] In some ways, it's appropriate he doesn't speak," Benioff and Weiss told Deadline. "What's Death going to say? Anything would diminish him. He's just a force of destruction. I don't think we've ever been tempted to write dialogue for The Night King. Anything he said would be anticlimactic."
While perhaps not wholly unexpected, hearing confirmation of the Night King's eerie muteness is interesting.
On the season seven finale, Jon Snow seemed to indicate that he knew they didn't have a chance of talking the Night King out of his destructive intentions. Jon called him "a general you can't negotiate with" — which could be taken literally.
Jon and the rest of the living will have to figure out another way of combating their silent enemy. Thankfully season seven revealed the killing a White Walker also kills every wight it animated.
"Game of Thrones" will return for its eighth and final season possibly as late as 2019. Until then, night gathers and now our watch begins.
