Brenock O'Connor plays Olly in the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones, a character introduced in the show, but does not make an appearance in the books published by George R. R. Martin. The character was introduced originally as a one episode character, to further the story between the Wildlings and the Night's Watch at Castle Black, but was later kept on the show to provide more backstory surrounding the deaths of Ygritte and Jon Snow in the fourth and fifth seasons, respectively.
Following his character Olly's betrayal and murder of Jon Snow in the fifth-season episode "Mother's Mercy", O'Connor stated that he received many negative messages from fans of the show, with O'Connor responding in an interview, "I'm so, so sorry if any of you were offended, but it was in the script. What could I do?" In the same interview he also stated that he has received other messages from people who understand that the show is "not reality," and praised his performance in the role. In a subsequent interview, O'Connor stated he was content with the controversial reaction to his character, noting "It's very rare for my character to get noticed really, so I was quite happy with the reaction that I got. When you do something bad, you want a bad reaction for it." Olly made his last appearance in the sixth-season episode "Oathbreaker", when he was hanged by a resurrected Jon Snow.
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