'Game of Thrones' Star 'Constantly Surprised' By Character's Story Line

The only negative thing about the fact that we've passed the halfway mark in this second season of "Game of Thrones" is the fact that there are precious few new episodes left until the expectedly epic season finale.

But let's dwell on the positive, shall we? As in this season's action-packed last two episodes and what that means for where we'll find our favorite characters in season three. For those of us who've read the books, we have a pretty good idea of where things are headed, depending on how many more changes the show-runners make to George R.R. Martin's source material. But we're always curious to know how much the actors know about the fate of their characters.

MTV News recently caught up with dashing Scottish actor Richard Madden, who plays Robb Stark, and asked him how much he knows about Robb's story line ahead of time. (His response is spoiler-free, for those who are concerned.)

"I know what happens to him, I know where he goes. It's quite different because obviously in the second book, Robb's not in it," Madden said. "We got green-lit for season two and I got really excited and picked up the book and started reading it, and I was like, 'This is great! My character is going to come in at any minute!' and then kind of halfway through it got to be, 'Yeah, he's gonna come in at some point?' and then I got to the end [of the book] and I was like, 'This sucks. I'm in the TV show but I'm not in it!' Then luckily, David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] have brought in my story line and brought it to life, which is really great because we get so see bits that you didn't get to see in the book. Hopefully when we get to season three, we've really set up these relationships. I'm keen to see how the dynamic between the two women in Robb's life plays out going into season three."

So Madden's familiar with the ins and outs of Martin's second book in the series, "A Clash of Kings," but has he ventured into the even more twisted and action-packed happenings in the third novel, "A Storm of Swords"?

"It's one of the things I try to avoid doing. I only read season by season, I don't read ahead," Madden revealed. "It's one of the great things about the books that I loved is that you are constantly surprised by these characters and the story, and as an actor I want to try and stick to that. I know if I read too far ahead, I'd start preempting character traits or decisions he makes. I'd much rather be an actor and make one decision and stick to it and then have the challenge of turning it around and going in a different direction. I try and keep it like that as much as I can so the audience gets as surprised by the journey as I do when I read the books and when I read each script."

Just to be clear, we asked Madden to clarify exactly what he knows about his character's trajectory in the epic series, since he hinted that he has an idea about Robb's overall arc.

"I know things that happen but I've not read it yet," he said. "Now that season three has been green-lit, I'm excited I get to dive into that book and engulf it."