The word’s been getting aroundthat the Northern Irish leg of filming for the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones will wrap around November 18th, which is an earlier wrap date than last year. All in all, it sounds like filming has largely gone off without a hitch, excluding the gale that led to some minor injuries and delayed filming of scenes involving Renly Baratheon and his camp until a later date.
What will occupy those last two weeks in Northern Ireland? Besides miscellaneous interior shoots in Paint Hall (I believe Lena Headey wraps filming this week or next, and an actor tweeted he was due in Belfast to play the part of a Lannister guard), it sounds like a good deal of the action is on location for scenes set in and around Winterfell. Another actor recently revealed he was playing a huntsman in charge of some tracking dogs (readers of the novels can guess what scene that’s for), and then a fan managed to get a nice photo of on-going filming at Audley’s Castle which was used last season to represent Robb’s encampment (among other things).
There was speculation as to what role it would play this year… but that seemed to be put to rest by a recent tweet from production assistant and Making Game of Thrones reporter Cat Taylor , indicating that filming was going on at Robb’s Camp. This seems to mean that filming this camp scene has gone on for a few days, since on the 27th there was this MGoT post also said to be from Robb’s camp, which makes it sound as if it’s the location of a battle.
Once filming is wrapped in Northern Ireland, there remain several weeks of shooting to be done in Iceland, for extensive scenes set beyond the Wall. A local report from Iceland indicate that there were 500 e-mails regarding extras casting within about 12 hours, and over a thousand people ultimately tried as extras. Details are thin as to the whole of the production’s plans in Iceland, with one question—whether the production will be building any sort of sound stage for filming—going unanswered (our guess? No; if they need to shoot on a stage, Iceland doubtless has a few handy).