Melisandre’s Old Age Revealed In Shocking Final Moments Of ‘Game Of Thrones’ Premiere

Game of Thrones‘ sixth-season premiere, “The Red Woman,” culminated in a shocking scene that revealed a side of Melisandre that’s never been seen before.

Melisandre’s Age Revealed

Thus far in Game of Thrones, Melisandre, a red witch, has been portrayed not only as a capable sorceress but as the epitome of feminine sensuality, an unquestionable object of desire. While actress Carice van Houten has suggested in the past that Melisandre has lived many lifetimes, it wasn’t clear that her old age had manifested itself physically – until Sunday night.

Towards the end of season 5, Melisandre’s abilities – or at least her confidence in them – seem to be shaken. After Stannis’ death, she took off for Castle Black, believing that Jon Snow would be the next vessel for her powers. Before she gets the chance to aid him in a battle at Winterfell, as she sees in the flames, he is stabbed to death by men of the Night’s Watch who think that he is a traitor to their cause. Getting into bed the night after learning of Jon Snow’s death, Melisandre disrobes, removes her necklace, and, looking into the mirror, sees an ageless, ancient woman looking back at her. It is this woman who gets under the covers of her bed and goes to sleep.

For van Houten, this big reveal about Melisandre was incredibly exciting for her to play. “I was really happy when I read that we were going to reveal [her age] this year,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I don’t think a lot of people will see that coming. It makes her immediately more vulnerable, but also more wise and even more mysterious. There’s also a vulnerability in her age.”

In order to get the look right for the ancient Melisandre, an older woman was cast to be her body, while hair and makeup transformed van Houten with prosthetics. CGI did the rest. According to director Jeremy Podeswa, the combination of strategies provided the most realistic looking scene.

“The idea is there’s an indefinite indeterminate quality that she could be ancient. We were limited by choosing to use a real person rather than a complete CG creation. Because what does a 400-year-old person look like? We don’t know,” Podeswa told EW. “So if you try to create that, then you’re creating something that looks beyond our known reality. Here you feel like she’s very old without putting a number on it.”

Podeswa added, “I think the performance of both actresses helps making her look ageless. There was a question of whether we should add more effects to make [the body double] look older, but I think anything we could have done would have made them look less real. When doing a fantasy show – or a show with fantasy elements – the more you can anchor an effect to reality the stronger the illusion is.”

When Game of Thrones returns next week, it’s unknown what version of Melisandre will appear or what has become of her powers. Could she still be the one to resurrect Jon Snow?

Game of Thrones airs Sundays on HBO at 9/8c.