Game of Thrones fans were left in mourning after season five came to an end – but the grief has swiftly turned into excitement over season six. Filming for the new series is already underway with locations including Spain and Belfast. The Game of Thrones panel at this year's San Diego Comic Con remained tight-lipped about the major plot lines, but rumours and leaks continue to circulate on the internet. Here are twelve predictions for the next series, expected to be released next April: 1. No more Jon Snow… for now Have we seen the last of our hero? Despite Jon Snow's apparent death at the end of season five, many fans and commentators rushed to the internet to declare him live and kicking. The actor Kit Harington, who plays Snow, and the show's producers have insisted "dead is dead" and that the character won't be returning in season six. Maisie Williams, who plays Arya, has also said: "We saw him get stabbed a lot, I think it's pretty clear he's dead." However, Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys, reckons there is a "50/50 chance" of Snow returning, and Carice Van Houten, who plays Melisandre, has been even more positive. "No, he can't be dead. No!" she told The Sun at London Film and Comic Con. A popular theory is that Melisandre might be able to bring him back to life, with fans saying that they would be willing to forgive her for burning Shireen alive if she brings back Snow. Others have suggested that Snow's ability to possess animals as a skinchanger means he could live on inside his direwolf Ghost. Even Barack Obama is desperate to know about Snow's fate, reports The Guardian . Director David Nutter told Comic Con what happened when he recently met the US President. Describing Obama as "the number-one Game Of Thrones fan in the world", Nutter said: "He shook my hand, and he put his other hand on my shoulder and he said, 'You didn't kill Jon Snow did you?' and I said, 'Mr President, Jon Snow is deader than dead'." 2. Bran Stark to return Jon Snow fans can take comfort from the fact that characters have been known to take whole seasons off and still make a return, as Bran Stark is poised to do in season six. The fledgling warg was not seen for the whole of season five but, according to Entertainment Weekly , Stark was busy "receiving training from the Three- Eyed Raven and the Children of the Forest off- screen". British actor Isaac Hempstead Wright has confirmed that he will return as Bran Stark, telling the Irish Examiner : "I can't say a lot but I am back this season, and it's going to get particularly interesting with Bran. He has some interesting visions." The 16-year-old actor admitted that he has yet to actually watch season five as he has been concentrating on his school exams. Stark's return has been compared with Luke Skywalker's reappearance as a Jedi in Star Wars. 3. New Lost and X-Files directors According to Time magazine, five directors will be involved in the new series, each handling two episodes. Three of the directors – Jeremy Podeswa, Mark Mylod and Miguel Sapochnik – are Thrones veterans, but there are also two newcomers. Daniel Sackheim, who has previously worked on Miami Vice, The X-Files and House, will be directing episodes three and four, while Jack Bender, best known for directing 38 episodes of Lost, will be at the helm for Game of Thrones episodes five and six. The decision to put Sapochnik in charge of the final two episodes might also suggest "we're in for another epic battle climax", says Time, as it was Sapochnik who directed the Hardhome episode in season five, featuring a long battle sequence with Jon Snow, the Wildlings and the White Walkers' army of zombies. 4. Old plots could resurface The end of season five was terminal in more ways than one, as the TV series more or less caught up with the books it is based on. George RR Martin's most recent book A Dance with Dragons was released in 2011 and season five incorporated many of its plot strands. Martin now appears to be dedicating his time to writing the next book, The Winds of Winter, but it is not guaranteed to be finished in time for the new series. As Martin has been consulting the show's creators, Dan Weiss and David Benioff, while writing, Andrew Prokop at Vox worries that the airing of season six before the release of the book will "spoil huge chunks of it" for readers. Weiss and Benioff have also hinted that they might return to characters and storylines previously ignored in Martin's books. "Sometimes we're going in a different order or telling a different story," Benioff told Entertainment Weekly . 5. There will be blood Although Snow's story may have come to end, there are plenty of other characters in the saga for who the future remains uncertain. Cersei survived her imprisonment and may have to enlist the help of Qyburn once more in the battle to ensure the Red Keep remains under her family's control, while Qyburn has taken on perhaps the most gruesome character of all, Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, as his own personal warrior. As Jeremy Egner writes in the New York Times, this means "blood will flow". 6. 'Very spectacular' fight scenes Casting calls for Game of Thrones have not only given fans an insight into the new characters they can expect, but also the new scenes. One casting document, leaked this summer, called for "the best swordsman in Europe" to play the role of a "legendary fighter" in "very spectacular fight scenes". Another similar casting call, possibly for the same role, advertised for someone who "looks heroic and like a fierce and efficient experienced fighter" to appear in a "massive and memorable" fight scene. "The flamboyant aspects of the fighting will be taken over by a stunt fighter but we need someone who looks like they can take care of themselves," it said. Watchers on the Wall suggests the character could be Ser Arthur Dayne. In Martin's books, Dayne dies following a fight at the Tower of Joy, which looks set to feature in the sixth series. In another hint for scenes to come, Arya Stark actress Maisie Williams has been seen filming a scene in which she is neck-high in freezing cold water in a harbour in Carnlough, Northern Ireland. Stark, who was rendered blind in the last series, is heard wailing off into the distance from the water. 7. Pirate among new faces A casting call for season six has revealed that the next series could feature a pirate, described as "cunning, ruthless, with a touch of madness". Joanna Robinson in Vanity Fair says the pirate is "definitely everyone's favourite eye-patch- wearing uncle, Euron Greyjoy, aka Crow's Eye" from the books. According to Robinson, other near certainties for new characters include more Dothraki and members of a theatre troupe that Arya becomes a part of during her quest as an assassin. Young British actor Sam Coleman has been given a role in the upcoming series, according to his Spotlight CV. The 18-year-old recently filmed his feature debut in Leatherface, a prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which co-stars Finn Jones, aka Loras Tyrell in Game of Thrones. 8. 'Worlds are coming together' Jeremy Podeswa, who directed season five's controversial Sansa Stark rape scene, is back for season six and has hinted that it won't be a slow-burner. Podeswa, who is taking charge of filming for episodes one and two, told Deadline : "One thing I can say about the first two episodes of the season is that there's not a lot of laying pipe or laying track. We just get right into the story and it's very propulsive narratively – the whole season is – and it's heading towards a destination that is very exciting." Podeswa said that every character has got an "amazing" storyline this year and indicated that there would be some exciting plot cross-overs. "I think the way the characters converge is something that started last season, where characters who have never met before were suddenly meeting, and the worlds are coming together, and the world is getting a little smaller in a way," he said. "That happens more and more this season. That becomes very exciting." 9. Bigger dragons One thing is for certain: there will be dragons in season six and big ones at that. Daenerys' babies, gifted at her wedding, were seen briefly in season five, but the man behind the visual effects for Game of Thrones, Joe Bauer, told Yahoo : "For season six the dragons will again be double in size, spanning 120ft from wingtip to wingtip." Cinemablend says there will "definitely be some challenges in continuing to show bigger and badder dragons, capable of all different types of mass destruction". Without any real dragons to base their models on, the team initially played with a chicken to feel how the muscles might work and where the "bones" should go. "When the dragons were small, we had little foam rubber models of each dragon and we could carry them on and off of the set and it was no big deal," says Bauer. "Last year, the best we could do was a head and this year it's going to be a finger nail or something, I'm not really sure." 10. Are Tyrion and Jon part Targaryen? One theory is that Tyrion Lannister may also be a Targaryen. The Mad King Aerys II Targaryen, Daenerys's father, was particularly fond of Tyrion's mother, Joanna Lannister, and in the book, A Dance with Dragons, Daenerys is told that her father "took liberties" during the bedding ritual at Joanna's wedding to Tyrion's father Tywin. When Tyrion shoots his father at the end of season four, Tywin utters: "You are no son of mine." Many fans – and iDigitalTimes – believe this might be more than a dying retort and that Jon and Tyrion are the other two dragon riders needed to reclaim the Iron Throne with Daenerys, according to a vision she had in season three. Another theory is that Jon Snow is not Ned Stark's illegitimate son, but rather the son of Ned's sister Lyanna and Daenerys's older brother, Rhaegar. On her deathbed in the Tower of Joy, a single tower located in the Red Mountains of Dorne, Lyanna asks Ned to promise her something – fans speculate that this could be a request to bring up her boy as his own. One of the new locations for Game of Thrones season six is the Castillo de Zafra, a 13th century fortress located in Guadalajara province, Spain. Many fans believe this might be used as the Tower of Joy for a flashback to Snow's childhood. And if the show is about to retell the origins of Snow, there's "absolutely no way he's dead", says Geek.com . Jon and Tyrion's possible Targaryen connections are consistent with a theory that they are the other two dragon riders needed to reclaim the Iron Throne with Daenerys according to a vision she had in season three. During the vision, Daenerys walks through three areas: a Dothraki tent (representing her), the Wall (possibly representing Jon) and the throne room in King's Landing (possibly referencing Tyrion's service as Hand to King Joffrey).Another potential tie that fans point to is the Westerosi legend that "a dragon must be born of blood". Daenerys, Jon and Tyrion all killed their mothers in childbirth.After Daenerys emerged unscathed from her husband's funeral pyre, some fans hope Jon might have a chance of resurrection during his own cremation if he really is a Targaryen with a mystical connection to fire. 11. Will Arya be permanently blind? Aside from Jon Snow's demise, one of season five's most shocking plot lines was the psychotic and brutal traits Maisie Williams' character Arya showed in her killing of Meryn Trant. In the season five finale, Arya's unusual punishment for killing Trant, rather than Thin Man, was the loss of her sight in a rather unnerving fashion. In an interview with HBO, Williams said the chilling effect was achieved by placing 16mm-wide contact lenses in her eyes. "I hope that her sight comes back, but if not, I think she should become a real badass assassin without sight," she said. Another cliff-hanger involves Arya's sister Sansa Stark (played by Sophie Turner), who was leaping off the high wall of Winterfell with Theon (Alfie Allen) at the end of season five. HollywoodTake predicts that the pair will finally bond after their "tense" relationship during season five. But where will they go and will Sansa be able to escape from her abusive husband Ramsay? 12. Young Ned Stark? Casting calls for two young boys with dark hair and Northern accents for series six quickly caught the sharp eyes of hardcore fans. On the fan site Watchers on the Wall, there was immediate speculation that the two youngsters will be playing younger versions of Ned Stark and his brother, Benjen. English actor Sebastian Croft is set to play the older boy, who is described as having brown hair and blue eyes, much like Sean Bean, who played the adult Ned until being killed off at the end of the first series. After a little further investigation, the site revealed that "reliable sources" had revealed to them that 13 year-old Croft will indeed be playing a young Ned Stark, in a scene which will see him and his brother sparring with wooden swords. Showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff once ruled out using flashbacks to flesh out characters' backstories, but they relaxed their rule last series with a scene involving a young Cersei. So it's not unthinkable that they would consider using the device again. 13. Red priestess Kinvara to make an appearance Another character revealed in the casting calls for season six is a "beautiful, intense and magnetic" young priestess – and a recent leaked audition clip has given more details about the role. The clip shows British actress Tehmina Sunny reading for the part of Kinvara, a red priestess who visits Tyrion and Varys to offer help in ruling Meereen following the departure of Daenerys, who was last seen flying away on her dragon in season five. The audition script, first published on io9.com , hints that it may be some time before Daenerys returns, as Kinarva says she has been "sent to lead the people against the darkness… for this war, and the Great War yet to come". The addition of a new red priestess suggests that season six might also focus more on the Lord of Light R'hllor, the deity worshipped by red priests and priestesses, as well as the religious differences between those in Westeros and those in the Free Cities.