Bran Stark will not feature in 'Game Of Thrones' season 5, and here's why

It's now official. The character of Bran Stark will not feature in the 5th season of hit drama show 'Game Of Thrones'.

We heard the rumors from Hodor himself, but now showrunner David Benioff has not only confirmed we're going Hodor-less, but explains why.

"The fact is, even though we're making changes to the books and adapting as necessary, we're trying to keep the various storylines the same as the books and trying to keep them roughly [chronologically] parallel. And last year we caught up to the end of Bran's storyline [in George R.R. Martin's most recent A Song of Ice and Fire novel, A Dance with Dragons]. So if we pushed him forward this season, then he's way ahead of where the other characters are."

"It made sense to stop where we did," Benioff said told EW. "[Bran is] now entering a training period which is going to take quite some time, much of which isn’t particularly cinematic. So rather than being stuck in a cave for a year, we figured it would be interesting to leave him out for a little bit, so when you see him again..."

New episodes of Game of Thrones will begin airing in 2015.