Westeros

The second official trailer for Game of Thrones is now out. Quite a lot of new stuff here—including Tormund Giantsbane speaking, some quick looks at Daario Naharis, and more:

Must find time to screencap…

And yet another brand new Game of Thrones preview for season 3, showing fleeting glimpses of some new scenes we’ve never glimpsed before, including some of Stannis and Melisandre, Jaime and Brienne, Arya and Gendry, and more:

Well, hot on the heels of our NewNowNext Award nomination, we can reveal that the latest issue of Rolling Stone has a brief profile of yours truly (aka Elio). Yes, rather a surprise when they contacted us! It was nice to discuss our involvement with the website and the fandom and so on, although I do see that the hour-long conversation lost some things in translation when it was boiled down to the smaller article…

Nice—HBO has released a new tease for season 3…. which is all about war, naturally. It gives us our very first good look at Noah Taylor as Locke (a new character introduced to take over some of the function of Vargo Hoat). Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering if he has six fingers on one hand?

We learned this news last week, and it looks like we can finally share it with all and sundry: Westeros.org has been nominated in the “Superfan Site” category of LOGO’s televisied NewNowNext Awards.  To say the least, it’s an honor to be recognized by those who selected the nominees! For those wondering, LOGO is an LGBT-geared entertainment channel,a sister channel to MTV. The NewNowNext Awards have been running since 2008, and have seen the likes of Lady Gaga on their stage. The awards show don’t take themselves too seriously, suffice it to say!

Linda and I were invited to the award show, but alas, we won’t be able to make it (and we’re quite gutted—not often one gets invited to a red carpet event!) That said, since we’re in the running, it’s up to the fans and visitors to the site to take the time and vote for us! You can vote in one of two ways:

Go through this here image ....

Or if you’re on Twitter, just tweet a message containing the hastags #NNNAWesteros and #NNNAwards (must include both) and they’ll automatically register your vote.

Thanks to the Edelweiss publishing catalog, fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones can get their very first glimpse at The World of Ice and Fire, the history and guide to the setting that Linda and I have co-written with George R.R. Martin. There are four sample pages... although if you peer at them, you may notice some fake Latin as some of these were just used to show layout. But, hey, some of the text—and some of the sort of information the text will reveal—can be seen, along with some of the art readers have in store for them.

The World of Ice and Fire is presently set for an Fall 2013 release, and can be pre-ordered from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

EW, with its bevy of exclusive interviews now being posted, has gone the extra mile: it latest issue is a Game of Thrones extravaganza, starting right with its cover featuring Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke in costume as Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen.

EW has more information about what to expect… including a nice, spoilerish synopsis of some season highlights:

Amazon.com’s Omnivoracious blog has a brand new interview with George R.R. Martin, discussing aspects of his work as the writer of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, as well as the Game of Thrones TV series. Note that it’s vaguely spoilerish, so if you’ve not read through at least the first three novels and your extremely paranoid regarding even the vaguest of potential spoilers, best avoid.

So, eager to hear a little bit about what the first episode will reveal to those watching? HBO teases the season premiere episode “Valar Dohaeris”, and runs through a lengthy list of notable returning and new cast members, in a press release they’ve sent to the media. As there’s spoilers herein, to some degree, we’re just going to put everything under the cut… so click on through!

Over at EW, James Hibberd has posted the first of fifteen exclusive interviews ahead of the March 31st premiere of Game of Thrones. The first interview features Gwendoline Christie—Brienne of Tarth on the show—discussing initial reactions to her casting and her character’s journey, with just a wee bit of detail regarding scenes she’s filmed for this season.

Check it out, and keep an eye on the #EWThrones hashtag on Twitter to learn when the rest of the interviews are published, as they will be once each weekday until the premiere.

Eager to make sure fans who’ve been waiting for the third season are fully caught up to speed, HBO has prepared a recap program that covers key story and thematic points of the last season, along with commentary from actors and producers along the way. Check it out below:

While the traveling exhibit is just about to open in Toronto (with special guest Rose Leslie, aka Ygritte), fans who won’t be able to make it to the locations can still get a taste of what you might see there thanks to the wonders of the internet.

Over at the official Making Game of Thrones production blog, propmaster Gordon Fitzgerald provides some great insight into the process of making props for the show, which certainly has some of the best production values in television (and, I have to say, one of the best crews in television):

And then, via Cat Taylor, we learn that concept artist Will Simpson now has a Facebook fan page where he’s sharing some of the art he has created for the show. Never seen his gift to GRRM before!

Last night, we posted about the Game of Thrones-themed Sports Illustrated Power Issue. We now have the podcast—hosted by Richard Deitsch—with GRRM, which you can find here along with a partial transcript of some of Martin’s remarks.

It’s very much sports-oriented, but there’s some remarks that touch on the characters and the setting (such as Martin’s comparison of knights to athletes).

We’ve placed this interview in the So Spake Martin collection, where you’ll find a great deal of links to interviews, correspondence, and reports from readings, panels, and conventions.

The annual “Power Issue” of Sports Illustrated is on its way, and this time around it seems the editors have chosen a Game of Thrones theme. Not only does NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sit on the Iron Throne on the cover, as he’s ranked the #1 most powerful person in sport, but artist John Hendrix provides this very cool depiction of the modern day sports empires re-envisioned A Song of Ice and Fire style. “The Land of Always Hockey” is particularly choice.

It also sounds like Richard Deitsch of SI will soon be posting a podcast with George R.R. Martin:

Told my podcast and Q&A with @gameofthrones king George R. R. Martin will post today. You’ll enjoy his thoughts on Bill Belichick.

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) March 6, 2013

To learn more about the issue, visit the Sports Illustrated website.

At some point, I need to gather up all these interviews with actors that have been sneaking out the last month or two, and just make a big post with them all. Until then, however, here’s a interview with Rose Leslie, who plays Ygritte on Game of Thrones, courtesy of Access Hollywood. Nice to hear from her, as she didn’t get much in the way of attention for the second season when her role was something of a late entry into the series.