'Game of Thrones' Star Talks About His Season 5 Death

— -- They didn't waste any time Sunday night on "Game of Thrones" when the show killed off a major character in the first episode of season 5.

Spoilers Ahead

The king beyond the wall, Mance Raydar, died after Jon Snow shot him in the heart with an arrow right before he was to be burned alive. He died because he wouldn't salute Stannis Baratheon, the proclaimed rightful heir to the Iron Throne.

The actor Ciaran Hinds spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his character's demise.

"I got a very lovely email from [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss]. They said basically, 'Hi, you know about this show, you know All Men Must Die, and now you’re going to be on your way'—not quite like that, but it was very lovely," he told EW of how he learned his character was going to be killed.

He added, "Being roasted alive is one of the most painful things to be done to you. He wanted to give these people this image, that we can be strong, in what we believe, even in death. I think he was genuinely horrified by the possibility—not just the pain that will arrive, but that his men would see him in this weakness, and that in turn would weaken them."

The interesting thing about Raydar's death is that in the books, it's a trick and he comes back to life. Hinds doesn't think this will happen in the show.

"Yeah. In the books there’s a lot more than there is in the television series. It’s impossible to recreate everything that’s in the books. You can’t be absolutely faithful to the book, and why would you want to be? It’s a different medium. You have to make decisions and bold decisions and there are so many other characters, that there is enough in the pot. I imagine that if Mance were to come back, like in the books, he’d come back in a different guise, as a different person—it wouldn’t involve me, probably," he said.