'Game of Thrones': Which major characters may not appear in season 5?

Will some characters from the HBO hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones” not be appearing in the fifth season of the TV show?

(Spoilers for recent episodes follow…) 

Actor Kristian Nairn, who plays the character of Hodor, says his character and the character Bran Stark, portrayed by Isaac Hempstead-Wright, won’t be on the show for the new episodes. “We [Hodor and Bran] have a season off and we have a year's hiatus, solely because I imagine our storyline is up to the end of the books,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 

The storyline involving Bran and Hodor ended last season with Bran meeting a young girl who said she is a Child of the Forest and an elderly man who told Bran he would teach him to “fly.” 

HBO has not commented on Nairn’s remarks.

Meanwhile, as certain characters are left behind for the new season, “Thrones” showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff told Entertainment Weekly that some of the show’s action will be taking place in Dorne, the home of recently deceased prince Oberyn Martell.

In addition, “we’ll be drawing heavily from [the novel ‘A] Feast [of Crows] and [‘A] Dance [with Dragons] in season 5,” Benioff said. As for rising stakes, the producers told EW in a joint statement, “The White Walkers aren’t going away. The dragons aren’t getting any smaller. Melisandre’s still sorceressing, the giants are more [angry] than ever.” 

“Game of Thrones” stars actors Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, among many others. The series was the most-nominated show at this year’s Emmy Awards but lost in many major categories in a year dominated by the final season of AMC’s show “Breaking Bad,” though "Thrones" did win in such categories as visual effects and costumes. 

Meanwhile, “Thrones” writer George R.R. Martin is projecting two more books in the “Thrones” series “A Song of Ice and Fire,” though the next book to be released, “The Winds of Winter,” does not yet have a publication date.