‘Game of Thrones’: Is Gendry the Son of Cersei and Robert?

Game of Thrones Season 8 just kicked off, and as Gendry has once again returned, a new fan theory has emerged claiming that he could be the son of Cersei Lannister and Robert Baratheon.

Notably, the theory actually really caught wind when Gendry actor Joe Dempsie brought it up in a Men’s Health interview.

The actor was speaking about his character and how even he had very few answers, so he began to read some theories online.

“I just wanted answers about my character. I was the most curious as to what we might find out about Gendry’s parentage,” he said. “Obviously, we know that he was the bastard of Robert Baratheon, but who might his mover have been?”

“There’s a line in season one, and it’s a first scene you ever see of Gendry, where he’s looking to Ned and he’s asked about his mother, and he says he doesn’t remember much about her at all, other than the fact that she had yellow hair and she would sing to him,” Dempsie added.

“It’s one of those things where you go, ‘Do they usually write lines that don’t mean anything, or lines that seem to have significance that [are] never addressed again?’ I was kind of intrigued to see what that might mean, and what impact that might have on Gendry’s clout politically,” he went on to say.

The line that Dempsie is referencing, as Mashable points out, is especially interesting when partnered with something that Cersei once said about a child she delivered that was allegedly stillborn.

“I lost my first boy, a little black-haired beauty,” she said in Season 1 of Game of Thrones, while speaking to Catelyn Stark after Bran’s fall.

This stands out because all of Cersei’s now-deceased children were fathered by her brother Jamie, and all had blond hair. (She is also once again pregnant, and claims that Jamie is the father.)

Baratheon children, however, always have dark hair, with is something that Robert himself boasted. Cersei also has “yellow” hair, so it could be possible that she is Gendry’s real mother and just doesn’t know about him.

If true, this could be huge, because it would mean that Gendry has the greatest stake to claim for the Iron Throne.

There are some obvious holes in the theory, such as the fact that Gendry says his mother died when he was “little” and not a baby. He does not explicitly state that he remembers his mother, but the delivery of the line seems to imply that he at least remembers that attribute rather than just someone telling him that his mother had blond hair.

The most plausible scenario is that Robert had an affair with a blond woman, which was not out of character for him, and Gendry was the result.

However, this is Game of Thrones we’re talking about, so tune into the new episodes on HBO, Sundays at 9 p.m. ET to what happens!