6 Missing Game Of Thrones Characters That Should Return In Season 6

Game of Thrones, the HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, wrapped up its fifth season on American television on Sunday evening. Though critically acclaimed as per usual, this most recent season has polarised elements of its audience more than ever given that the development of almost every on-screen character has caught up to their book counterpart and a number of original storylines not featured on the page have been depicted on screen as a result.

This was inevitable, however, and such storylines will likely continue and be created further with the show's upcoming sixth season, regardless of the fact that Martin has stated his wish to finish the next novel, The Winds of Winter, ahead of its premiere. As a result of this, new characters, original or not, will come into the fold, whilst characters that have been missing in action for some time may make a return to wrap up or expand upon a number of narratives.

Six such 'missing' characters will be looked at over the coming pages, with a focus on what role they might be likely to play if brought back. Be aware that there are book and television spoilers abound.

With the presumed death of Stannis Baratheon at the hands of Brienne of Tarth in the final episode of the fifth season (something that is yet to happen on the page), only one ruler from the 'War of the Five Kings' remains standing - Balon Greyjoy, the self-proclaimed King of the Iron Islands and father of Theon.

Balon has not been seen since season three, when his daughter Yara defied his orders not to attempt to rescue the captive Theon from the hands of the torturous Ramsay Bolton. Since then, we have seen this rescue fail on screen, whilst significant numbers of Greyjoy forces have been flayed to death in the North, also at the hands of Ramsay, without supplementary Iron Islands scenes depicting Balon's reaction.

In the books, Balon was actually the victim of a 'freak accident' in the middle of A Storm Of Swords, perishing around the same time as Robb Stark and Joffrey Baratheon. This led to a number of events, so far unseen on screen, that resulted in his exiled brother Euron returning to the Iron Islands during a power struggle to take his throne and begin a renewed Ironborn campaign against the mainland.

The recent casting information leak points to Euron being in season six, so it would make sense for us to see his brother once more, however briefly, in order to conclude his book storyline. This may result in the 'freak accident', strongly hinted at being an assassination, turning into a straight-up murder at Euron's hand as a result.

Yara, meanwhile, declared her brother to be 'dead' after the aforementioned rescue attempt and has not been seen since. If her father does indeed perish early on, she should be the one to stick around and oppose Euron if his malevolence on screen is anything near what it is implied to be in the books.