Well, things are finally heating up on the casting front. After Natalie Dormer was announced as Margaery Tyrell, we had all expected roles to be noted one after another… but it was strangely silent. Word from HBO was that they weren’t really going to try to hide casting information as deals were made, but it seems that isn’t wholly right, since it seems two roles have been cast: Spotlight.com indicates that a Kerr Logan has been cast as a character named “Mathos”. This led to speculation that he’s playing Mathos Mallarwan, one of the Pureborn of Qarth, but word that that role hadn’t been cast and the fact that a Matthos Seaworth is one of Davos Seaworth’s sons makes us think that’s the role.
More notably since then, Spotlight has yielded up Gemma Whelan as “Yara Greyjoy”, which as Winter is Coming notes was the name of the role given to Theon’s sister in a casing call sheet that was shared at our A Song of Ice and Fire forum. It seems the aversion to having characters with similar names—hence Jhogo being renamed to Rakharo to avoid confusion with Drogo, and Robert Arryn to Robin Arryn—strikes again, given the similarity of Asha to Osha. Hrm…
And, last but not least, what seems to be a brand new clue from George, titled “I’m Blue”, which suggests we’re looking at Brienne of Tarth:
The she-wolf of France has stormed the barbican. The Aussie turned her into a bunny.
For what it’s worth, Isabella of France—wife of Edward II, mother of Edward III—was called the She-wolf of France. And the Barbican happens to be a noted theatre in the U.K., so we suspect we’re looking for an Isabella/Isabelle who’s performed at the Barbican, at present….
UPDATE:
Okay, we’re pretty sure we’ve figured this one out: Gwendoline Christie, a 6’3” actress and performer. In her association with musician Patrick Wolf, she shot the video for “Damaris”... which had a B-side titled “Queen Isabella”. She’s performed at the Barbican in the role of the Queen in Cymbeline, and she was photographed as Playboy Bunny by an Australian artist.
If this is so, we’re very happy indeed. She first came to our attention in November of last year when she tweeted that she really wanted the role, something we noted back then. From the talk on Twitter, it sounds like she was made aware of the role by fan Paul Gude, so good on him!. She’s remained our favorite choice for the role all this while, so if this is true, we’re pleased as punch.