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

6. Balon And Yara Greyjoy

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.