Game of Thrones set fans abuzz with the news from yesterday that Ciarán Hinds had joined the cast as Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall. Now, we can confirm two additional names for the cast, these two focused on the region of Slaver’s Bay where Daenerys Targaryen’s story will be taking place next season. So, without further ado…
Dan Hildebrand has been cast as Kraznys—Kraznys mo Nakloz in the novels—a wealthy slaver of the Ghiscari city of Astapor who specializes in producing the “Unsullied”, the famously disciplined eunuch-soldiers who are impervious to pain thanks to a potion they drink that deadens their nerves. Astapor and the other Ghiscari slaver cities of Yunkai and Meereen will play a significant role in the series, and it’s great to hear of our first slaver character cast. In the novels, the slavers have quite a distinct appearance: amber skin and red-black hair that they style in elaborate fashions, and the habit of wearing fringed garments called tokars (basically togas). Kraznys is also rather fat, in the books. So, different appearance here, as Hildebrand certainly doesn’t match.
Hildebrand’s a British actor who has most recently been seen on Sons of Anarchy in the role of Sean Casey, a member of the True IRA who gets mixed up in the motorcycle gang’s business. For our part, we know him best from HBO’s very much missed Deadwood, in which he actually played two different roles: the foul-mouthed miner Tim Driscoll in the first season (seen in the clip below), and the sanctimonious, miserly hostel-keeper Shaughnessy in the third season. He also voiced the character of Master Ignacio in Dragon Age: Origins.
The other we can announce is that of Ramon Tikaram as Prendahl (in the novels, Prendahl na Ghezn), captain of a notorious company of sellswords in Essos. In the novel, that company is called the Stormcrows, and will be an obstacle to the khaleesi‘s progress through the season. As you might guess from the name, Prendahl is supposed to be a Ghiscari as well.
Tikaram, a British actor of Malaysian and Indo-Fijian origins, may be best known to some as the brother of singer Tanita Tikaram, but he has a deal of TV credits to his name. One of his earliest roles was as Jai Kumar in Mira Nair’s visually-beautiful but somewhat rote Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love (available in full on Youtube, but note mature content warnings) , across from Naveen Andrews and Indira Varma. He also has had roles on Primeval and as Qadim Shah on EastEnders.
Recently, Tikaram has starred in a production of The King & I. Here’s a promotional trailer: