For Game of Thrones fans, Sophie Turner is synonymous with her character Sansa Stark, the flame-haired elder Stark daughter who has progressed across the course of the show from sappy ingénue, to powerful, hardened power player.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the character's popularity, a number of fans panicked last yearwhen Turner revealed on her Instagram page that she had bleached her hair a bright, pale blonde.
Worried viewers took the new hue as a sign that Sansa was going to be killed off, with one Instagram user writing: "I think they really killed her off. She hasn't changed back into her red hair since. Sooo sad I liked how her character started rising back up (sic)."
But Turner, who will soon be seen in the show's seventh season, reassured her fans that this was definitely not the case.
Fans have grown attached to Game of Thrones character Sansa Stark's red hair. Photo / supplied
"People seemed to think it was a spoiler for Game of Thrones," the 21-year-old recently told Vogue.
"It was kind of quite flattering really, because when I first started, a lot of people didn't like that I changed my hair to blonde, they were attached to the red on the show, which only adds to why I think hair is so important [in role development] - it ignites a connection that people feel with the character.
"I [dyed my hair blonde] for a movie called Hunstville. I played a girl from Alabama with tattoos up my arm. It was such a different character for me, so I wanted to completely transform myself, and the hair was the icing on the cake."
Fans became concerned with Sansa Stark's fate when actress Sophie Turner dyed her hair blonde. Photo / Getty
In fact, while she first shot to fame as a redhead on Game of Thrones, Turner is naturally blonde, and was initially worried about dying her hair for the part.
She landed the role when she was just 15, after being encouraged to audition by her drama teacher.
"It was difficult, especially being in an all-girls school. There seemed to be a bad connotation with red or ginger hair, so I was nervous, but it was nice to transform my look for my first role," she told Vogue. Plus, it spurred my appreciation for how hair can change one's look and personality."
Finally, it's also worth noting that for season seven of the show, Turner opted to follow the example of her co star Emilia Clarke (who plays silver-haired Queen Daenerys Targaryen) and wear a wig, leaving her free to experiment with other hair shades away from the show. She was even pictured with blonde hair on the Game of Thrones set.
Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. Photo / supplied
In other words, using details about the off-screen appearance of the show's stars to try and guess their on-screen fate is probably a fairly futile exercise.
