Westeros

HBO has released two new videos today. The more interesting of the two is the later one, a behind-the-scenes video titled “Returning to Westeros”:

Some really interesting footage, particulary of Laena’s actress riding her dragon and then a sort of realtime pre-viz showing roughly what the shot will look like. Some real high technology going into the show! And of course, as already mentioned, the fact that they’ve built a massive Red Keep set with interlocking rooms so that one can do a “walk-and-talk” through various levels, rooms, and corridors—rather than the more economical approach of cutting away and showing only absolutely necessary rooms with one or two hallways being redressed to serve as multitudes—is impressive. Finally, you’ll catch more than a few glimpses of the sons of Alicent and Rhaenyra in the course of this

See the extended trailer below, which has a bit of added footage from the recently released full trailer!

We’ve reported previously that James Hibberd will be publishing an in-depth oral history of Game of Thrones—filled with new interviews and never-before-heard anecdotes from behind the scenes—titled Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon. Over at EW, a lengthy excerpt has been posted sharing a wide-array of comments from producers (Benioff and Weiss first and foremost, as well as Bryan Cogman), actors (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Jason Momoa, Mark Addy, Iain Glen), and executives (most notable Michael Lombardo and Richard Plepler) concerning the original pilot which was heavily reshot by Tim van Patten, including recasting of several key roles. There’s some decidedly new details just in this short excerpt, which bodes well for the rest of the book’s insights. Below are a couple of quotes from GRRM himself that are interesting.

Two weeks left for the premiere of the final season of Game of Thrones, and another behind the scenes video has appeared on HBO’s official Youtube channel of the series. This time, the focus is on the often-spectacular visual effects of the series:

The first episode premieres April 14th.

And now, following the featurette,  the ritual of screencapping resumes.  You can find many screenshots featuring the new cast members, and anything else of interest that we could spot (along with our commentary) at the Gallery

Also, now seemed a good time to add in the season 3 characters we’re aware of—either confirmed by HBO or confirmed by sources we trust in sufficient number to seem credible—to our season 3 character listing.

Enjoy!