Game Of Thrones: 10 Reasons That Character Isn't Really Dead

Heading back to the source material, A Dance With Dragons ends Jon's chapters with practically the exact same cliffhanger as this season. Yet in the years since the book came out, George R.R. Martin has continued to make comments that highly imply Jon will return. 

In this interview with Entertainment weekly, Martin is asked why he decided to kill of Jon Snow, and his response was, "Oh, you think he’s dead, do you?" He went on to say that he wouldn't address whether Jon was dead or alive. He never did this with any other actually dead characters like Ned or Robb, so why start now?

There are plenty of other examples like this, in addition to interviews where Martin refers to Jon in the future tense, like this one where he says he always knew what Jon's arc "is gonna be." Note he says is, not was. He has also confirmed that Jon will find out who his parents are, and he can't exactly do that if he's dead.

So based on the way Martin has talked about this, it seems like Jon will almost definitely be in the next book. And while the showrunners have changed things before, they're ultimately heading towards the same ending, and it seems highly unlikely that the show would do that without Jon Snow if he's still alive in the books.