Westeros

At the Winter TCA tour, HBO has now screened the 15 minute extended trailer of Game of Thrones for journalists in the run-up to Friday’s thirty-minute presentation and various interviews with GRRM, the executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and actors Sean Bean, Peter Dinklage, and Emilia Clarke. Thanks to WiCnet, who’s fortunate enough to be on the scene, here’s a quick preliminary run-down of the scenes shown, in the order that they were shown:

• “The things I do for love” scene—a pivotal moment in the first episode, just about every fan appears to agree—actually led off the screening, although we’re a bit surprised as we would have supposed it would have finished up the extended trailer.

• The delivery of a message by Maester Luwin to Lady Catelyn and Lord Eddard.

• A scene not from the novels, in which Ser Jaime confronts Ned. At a guess, the image above comes from the tail end of that scene, as just before it we see Ned leaving Jaime after a conversation.

• Daenerys’s wedding to Khal Drogo, and her erotic training at the hands of the pleasure slave Doreah. A couple of stills from that scene can be found here.

• Daenerys and Khal Drogo (played by Stargate: Atlantis alum Jason Momoa) speaking Dothraki with one another, the language the producers hired language creation experts to create based on the few scraps that George R.R. Martin (who’s present at the screening, but taking it easy after his serious illness) provided in the novels. A good glimpse of Drogo and Dany at the wedding can be seen in this behind-the-scenes shot here, as well as this one.

Before beginning the screening, it seems HBO explained again that at this time, the initial episode was not ready for viewing as digital effects were not yet completed. We expect to see more detailed description from WiC, Maureen Ryan of AOL’s TV Squad, and perhaps others later tonight after a second viewing. James Hibberd of EW—one of several notable critics who’s been very clear about his anticipation of the series—has already given his take on it, noting some additional quick flashes (including a look at the ugly monstrosity that is the Iron Throne, just as it should be), his getting into the scenes focusing on Dany, Viserys, and the Dothraki. He’s a little less convinced by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the brief scenes we’ve seen so far, though he does praise his delivery of the show-stopper line (quite literally, as it will be what the first episode ends on).

You can be sure we’ll have more reporting tomorrow when the panel and some surrounding tidbits take place. The presentation is scheduled for a half-hour block starting at around 4:15 PM Pacific time.