Game of Thrones: Red Wedding actor breaks silence on surprise return 

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'Game of Thrones' producer on the return of THAT character

SPOILER ALERT! Don’t read if you haven’t watched Sunday’s episode of

Surprise! Edmure Tully is back. On Sunday’s installment of

, Tobias Menzies made an unexpected – and unannounced – return to the HBO drama after what was nearly a three-year absence. Before his appearance, EW talked exclusively to the very busy actor, who’s currently scaring the bejesus out of fans on Starz’

Tobias Menzies: That’s right, yeah. They just reveal that he’s still there, that the Freys still have him.

Did the producers tell you that your character would return someday?

No, and I’m not sure they knew themselves. I think they’ve sort of found their way and chose what bits of the book they are doing. They just got in contact a little bit before we shot to see whether I was available, whether they could fit me in. It was a question of fitting in amongst my other commitments. But I’m a big fan of the show and was keen to make it work if I could.

Yeah, of course. There had been a couple of seasons and so I didn’t really have a huge expectation that I would come back. It was very, a nice surprise.

. It was autumn last year, and I think I was actually busy shooting a film in Prague at the time. I was away from

I mean they wouldn’t be drawn on the sort of time scheme. It’s possible that it has not been as long as that. It might have only been like a year or something. It’s unclear how much time has elapsed.

I didn’t, no. He wasn’t being underfed. He was just sort of, you know, maltreated.

Can you tease where things seem to be going with your character?

He is still a prisoner of the Freys and then the Freys try and use him as bait to reclaim Riverrun, which is his ancestral home. And then Jamie Lannister gets involved. [Edmure] becomes a pawn in a large political fight. He ends up having to make a very difficult decision over whether to betray his family.

Is this your best year yet or is there actually a year that exceeds this?

It’s good and busy at the moment. I’m enjoying it. I like what I do and a lot of these projects have really interesting material and interesting people to work with. I feel lucky.

For more from Menzies, pick up the current issue of

More coverage of “Blood of My Blood”: Read our interview with

producer Bryan Cogman on the return of that other character, Benjen Stark, plus our deep-dive recap.

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