Westeros

We’ve just published an exclusive interview with Michael Shaeffer, who plays Aerys II Targaryen in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Game of Thrones: The Mad King.

Shaeffer discusses how he unexpectedly came to the role, why he approached Aerys through the traumas of Summerhall, Duskendale and his troubled family history rather than simply playing him as “mad,” and how The World of Ice & Fire and Westeros.org helped inform his research.

The cat’s out of the bag: George R.R. Martin has announced that Game of Thrones: The Mad King, the new stage play which is completing its premiere run with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon this Saturday, is headed to London in 2027.

GRRM shared the news on his Not a Blog. The official website now confirms that the RSC production will come to London next year, with the venue and performance dates still to be announced. Fans can sign up there for news and priority access to tickets.

Due to a combination of oversight on my part and just being rather busy, I have realized that we’ve not posted about the fact that we’ve actually put up our review of the finale of House of the Dragon a few days ago…

... and for that matter, that we’ve posted our review of Game of Thrones: The Mad King as well, rather belatedly. There may be a future video about it as well, if there’s interest, to discuss in more detail but presently we’re adhering to the RSC’s request that we don’t say too many specific things about the plot points. Suffice it to say, it’s an incredible experience, and we hope there’ll soon be news about additional performances.

With Game of Thrones: The Mad Kingwell on its way after a somewhat delayed first performance, the Royal Shakespeare Company has sent out word that they have shared their first image of the primary cast in full costume. Featuring characters from the eponymous Mad King, Aerys I, to Eddard Stark, it gives us our best look yet at the costuming and the approach the show has taken to bring them to life. Absolutely love the lilac hue of Ashara’s gown, for example, and the elaborate styling of Queen Rhaella’s hair is incredible.

See the full press release that came with the image below!

Left to right, the portrait includes Tanisha Spring as Ashara Dayne, Elizabeth Ayodele as Princess Elia Martell, Mariah Gale as Queen Rhaella Targaryen, Callum Woodhouse as Lord Robert Baratheon, Michael Shaeffer as King Aerys II Targaryen, Harmony Rose-Bremner as Lyanna Stark, Luke Brady as Brandon Stark, Noah Ritter as Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and Michael Abubakar as Eddard Stark.

With the first preview of Game of Thrones: The Mad King now having taken place (and to a standing ovation, too!), there has understandably been a great deal of discussion about its revelations and, especially, about which parts of the play are or should be considered “canon”.

Naturally, people have asked us about this because of our long involvement with George and his work, both as long-time fans and lore “experts”, and as collaborators on The World of Ice and Fire, so it may be useful to explain how we understand the situation, based on our experiences and knowledge. Before we start, though, a disclaimer:  we have not directly spoken to George or the creatives about any of the specifics of the play. And, for that matter, we will do so without discussing the substance of the play or spoiling any of its details.

So, we’ve written an article in the Features section of the site delving into the question, and offering up our understanding of the situation.

An exclusive report from Whats on Stage features images released by the Royal Shakespeare Company during rehearsals for Game of Thrones: The Mad King, showing many of the cast… and showing, intriguingly, a sign directing “Horses” one way and “People” another (one of the images appears to explain why!) We’ve embedded the RSC’s post with images below.

What’s on Stage confirms remarks from the writer and director that while the play does center on the tourney at Harrenhal, it covers more ground than that, extending into the rebellion-proper (we’d guess as a final act or epilogue, perhaps?)

Actors Huw Parmenter and Kel Matsena as Ser Oswell Whent and Ser Arthur Dayne of the Kingsguard. Photo by Johan Persson.

Following February’s reveal that the renowned Royal Shakespeare Company would be putting on the world premiere of Game of Thrones: The Mad King at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, the RSC has now followed up with details including the names of additional creative team members, as well as ticket sale details and, most importantly, actual performance dates starting on July 20th with the official opening night being on August 8th.

Among the announcements in the press release are that a new seating configuration will be used to place the audience “at the very heart of the action — immersed in the intrigue and theatrical spectacle that promises to make this production truly epic,” as well as the fact that among the creatives are Puppetry and Movement heads Nick Barnes and Finn Cadwell (winners of the 2022 Olivier Award for their work on the theatrical Life of Pi).

Full details below!

Key art for Game of Thrones: The Mad King

Deadline has a good their interview with Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer of HBO, touching on a number of their shows, such as The Pitt and Heated Rivalry (which they have licensed in the US and other territories, and whose performance they are very pleased by). But of particular interest to our fellow fans would be the extended discussion of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and other projects in development… and some remarks on George R.R. Martin’s involvement.

Biggest news for us? Deadline indicates, before diving into the interview, that it’s said that the legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky—creator of the original Star Wars: Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, and Primal—is attached to the Nine Voyages of the Sea Snake animated series about Corlys Velaryon. Interestingly, we know Ryan Condal is a big fan of Tartakovsky, and one wonders if he had any involvement in getting Tartakovsky on board.

Some choice pieces from the interview below.

A still from the Black Knight test Tartakovsky released on Instagram, a stalled Sony Pictures project.

A big splashy announcement of a recent advance by Colossal Biosciences, creators of the “wooly mouse”, with the revelation that they have essentially recreated the 10,000-years extinct dire wolf which once roamed North America. The first two are named Romulus and Remus, after the legendary founders of Rome who were nursed by a she-wolf, while their younger “sister” is named… Khaleesi.

But what really got our attention was the concurrent reporting from The Hollywood Reporter that not only explicitly links the wolves with the direwolves of Game of Thrones, but also reveals that none other than George R.R. Martin is an investor and adviser… and so, too, is Peter Jackson, who provided a certain prop for a photoshoot with Romulus and Remus that Game of Thrones fans may recognize…

A trailer has been released for In the Lost Lands, a fantasy film based on a short story of the same name by George R.R. Martin. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), it stars Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) and Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) as the characters Gray Alys and Boyce, who in the film join forces to seek a powerful magical object in a post-apocalyptic, Western-inflected place called the Lost Lands. You can see the trailer below:

The 10th anniversary celebration for The World of Ice and Fire continues, with a companion of sorts to our previous image, as we look at another dragon from the Dance. This one seems to have disappeared entirely from House of the Dragon, though it was obliquely referenced in the first season, but we always had a bit of fondness for it. Here is the wild dragon known as the Grey Ghost, a shy creature that kept away from men, and preferred fish to anything else, beautifully rendered by artist Rudolf Hima:

To kick off our celebration of the 10th anniversary of The World of Ice and Fire, we commissioned Ertaç Altınöz to depict Sunfyre, the golden dragon of Aegon II—featured, all too briefly, in House of the Dragon. Ertaç gave us this beautiful image, of the great dragon spreading its wings as it suns itself.

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of The World of Ice and Fire. When it hit shelves in the US, UK, and elsewhere, it debuted on multiple bestseller lists. It had been 8 long years in the making—more, if you count when George first mentioned the possibility to me over dinner in 2004—and, on arrival, launched thousands of new conversations in the fandom, and has contributed to a dizzying amount of podcasts, vlogs, cosplay and other fan works.

It also, pretty directly, gave birth to Fire and Blood, as something like 80% of the material in that book was originally written by George for The World of Ice and Fire. And so there is a direct line, from George asking me if he thought Linda and I would like to help him on a world book, to House of the Dragon today. And, for that matter, to a number of the HBO projects that are or have been under development: the Ten Thousand ships, the Nine Voyages of Corlys Velaryon, an animated show about the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, Aegon’s Conquest, and who knows what else that hasn’t yet been revealed. Even a play, The Iron Throne (formerly known as Harrenhal), is likely to pull from the Year of the False Spring material George created for the book which gave fans never-before-revealed insights into how and why Lord Whent’s great tourney came to be. They all sprang from George’s pen for the book, and our role in many of these pieces was to help organize and excerpt and compress it down to fit within the bounds of a book that was originally contracted to be 50,000 words long (and ultimately weighed it at more than 180,000.)

Linda and I have been, and will always be, grateful for the opportunity to work with George in providing an expansion of the knowledge fans had about the world he’d created, and all the opportunities it’s given us. We’ve been invited to hold talks in more libraries across Sweden than we can count, have visited wonderful countries like Spain, Northern Ireland and Ireland, the Netherlands, and more to make appearances or sign books or take part in convention programming, attended an art exhibition in Berlin dedicated to works inspired by the book, we filmed numerous segments for Sky’s Thronecast in the UK, we’ve attended premieres, and much, much more. Along the way we’ve made many new acquaintances and friends, and that’s made this all the more gratifying to us.

It has been quite a ride, one we could never have imagined 25 years ago when we were just fans who wanted to run a little game based on these books we loved, and who started a small website to collect information about the books to share with fans the world over.

(This month also, not coincidentally, marks our 10th wedding anniversary—we decided it was an auspicious time to finally tie the knot, after spending 15 years together in Sweden.)

So, thankful to all the fans who have enjoyed the book, who have enjoyed all the art it contains and has inspired, Linda and I took it upon ourselves—entirely on our own initiative; this is not some secret marketing ploy or an attempt to hint at anything other than our love of George’s world and the fandom that shares that love!— to approach a number of professional artists to add just a few more illustrations for fans to enjoy. These works range from things that could well have been included in the original The World of Ice and Fire, or in The Rise of the Dragon, and are guided mostly by things we wanted to see done by these artists in particular.

Today, and over the weekend, we’re going to tease the twelve pieces of art we commissioned, posting them at about 7PM Swedish time each day… and over the following weekdays, leading up to the precise anniversary of October 28th, we’ll be releasing a new piece of art at 7PM our time as well. To get us started, you’ll see the first four teasers below. These teasers are randomly selected, and do not reflect the order we’ve planned for the final pieces.

Over at Not A Blog, George R.R. Martin provided an update on the casting of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is currently in production in Northern Ireland. We’ve previously

shared the casting of the two leads, but GRRM reveals that a number of other key roles have been cast. . . but it looks like HBO isn’t quite ready to reveal who they are, so they will remain nameless:

As we don’t know who most of the roles are (except for Egg, played by young actor Dexter Sol Ansell, whose video of getting his head shaved is featured in George’s post) we’ll present a gallery below of art by Roman Papsuev (remembered by fans from the early days as Amok or Amoka), commissioned by the Dabel Brothers and based, I believe, on Mike S. Miller’s designs for The Hedge Knight comic book.

Egg, by Roman Papsuev

Thanks to publishing news site Edelweiss, we’ve learned the full list of featured locations in the upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire 2025 Calendar, which we previously reported on back in December when the cover art, featuring Starfall, was revealed. All the illustrations are by artist Eddie Mendoza, whose work has previously graced The Rise of the Dragon.

Here’s the list of all 13 featured locations, continuing the tradition of twelve images for the months and a bonus two-page spread:

• Moat Cailin
• Dragonstone
• the Inn at the Crossroads
• the Nightfort
• the Bridge of Skulls