If you're like us, you've been holding out hope -- that is, feverishly piecing together any possible theory we can muster to make it so -- that the future of Jon Snow will be long and fruitful, even despite the fact that he was brutally taken down Julius Caesar-style to close out "Game of Thrones" Season 5's season finale. (Et tu, Olly?)

But according to HBO exec Michael Lombardino, all the Snow survivalists of the world are in for a rude awakening when Season 6 does come along.

Lombardino spoke at the Television Critics Association's summer press tour Thursday (July 30) night, and, as reported by The Wrap, told the audience that all that wishful thinking is for naught.

"Dead is dead is dead. He be dead. Yes. Everything I’ve seen, heard and read, he is dead," said Lombardino of the character's bloody fate.

But before you get too worked up about this statement, there are STILL a few glass-half-full-ers who can see a little loophole lurking in the seemingly ironclad statement he just made. These two tweeters, for instance, think that the question shouldn't have been whether Jon Snow is currently dead but whether he will remain dead throughout the forthcoming season. Oooooooh.

We like the way these guys think. After all, we've still got the Red Witch lurking around Castle Black now, and the White Walker transformation theory is still left intact by this news. So, even though the HBO boss tried to blast our emotions all the way to the Gulf of Grief, we're not giving up.

And guess what else? It looks like we have a few more years to look forward to show from the show, too (this we will choose to believe, BTW).

Lombardino said that ideally, the show will make it to a solid eight seasons.

"Obviously we're shooting season six now, hopefully discussing seven," he explained. "I think their feeling is we're looking at two more seasons after six. I'm hoping they'll change their minds, but that's what we're looking at right now."

Also of interest? A potential prequel, which hellooooo Targaryens. "I'm open to anything Dan [Benioff] and David [Weiss] would want to do," he said, "but no conversations yet." We are SO in.