The clip showed Giantsbane walking purposefully with Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer)somewhere.
EW spoke to the 40-year-old Norwegian actor about his return for the final season.
We didnt see him die; season 8 could have started episode 1 with dead Tormund, Hivju said.
Helen Sloan/HBO
I didnt understand the impact of the show until watching it with other people.
Im going for that.
As for Tormunds story line, thats being kept secret for now.
Both those characters are at Winterfell, however, and its unclear if there will be a reunion.
But the actor was able to tell us a little about Tormunds mindset at the start of the season.
He wants closure, Hivju said.
This has been the terror of their worst nightmare as long as theyve existed.
Tormund has confronted them many times.
This is the nightmare moment where you have to face centuries of bad dreams.
He also had a particularly philosophical way of looking at his time on the show.
Every seventh year there isnt a cell in your body that hasnt changed, said Hivju.
Your new cells learned what your old cells knew.
And you have your soul.
This flesh is not the same as what was sitting here seven years ago.
Everything has an end.
Everybody is exhausted and nobody is tired.
Everybody wants to up their game and make it even better.
We feel like were always competing with ourselves.
So its satisfying to end it and were ending it when everybody still loves being here.
