Westeros

The official Game of Thrones Youtube channel has posted up a couple of clips from the upcoming season 2 collection (Pre-order: US Bluray, US DVD, UK Bluray, UK DVD), one of which I’m sure is new and features Rose Leslie as Ygritte giving a wildling’s perspective on the history of the Night’s Watch:

The other is another glimpse of the “Inner Circle” roundtable of actors and producers, featuring Lena Headey discussing her work with Peter Dinklage; think we’ve seen the last part before, and maybe all of it:

A new entry at the official Making Game of Thrones production blog provides some new information regarding filming in Iceland (which has been a topic featured both in a video blog and a new Bluray excerpt), as it reveals a bit about filming a scene among the wildling encampment where Jon is taken to meet actor Ian Whyte, who played Ser Gregor this past season (and a White Walker in both of the previous seasons):

What do we think this means?

Courtesy of HBO, here’s one of our very favorite things that come from the Season 2 Blurays (Preorder: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk): the extras featuring the History of Westeros. Last season’s were amazing, but we’re told that this set is going to be even better, with more animation and that wonderful narration by the actors delivering these bits of knowledge as their characters. Here’s Wisdom Hallyne, the pyromancer, telling us all about his order and wildfire:

Have to love Roy Dotrice.

The Bluray hits retailers on February 19th in the U.S., early March in the U.K. and Europe.

This, as they say, is the motherload: many, many stills of characters (both old and new) from the upcoming season of Game of Thrones, set to air on March 31st.

Some terrific images of Mance Rayder, the King-beyond-the-Wall, the red priest Thoros of Myr, the siblings Meera and Jojen Reed… and some hints as to which episodes many of these characters appearing in.

So, hurry along and check out our gallery and share your thoughts! We may go back and provide further comments to the images when we have a chance.

And now a surprise, as George R.R. Martin trots out Froggie the Gremlin for a most unexpected casting clue. For those who’ve missed them previously, for prior seasons Martin has occasionally revealed actors who’ve been cast in roles by the use of clues. Inevitably, he’d use his Froggy the Gremlin avatar to signal when it was a clue.

This one threw me, since it’s rather early to be casting season 4 when the 5th season isn’t even greenlit. But of course, others who are smarter (or at least in earlier timezones) resolved the clue quite quickly: “It’s the Pits!” refers to a specific pit that will be appearing this season, and the “son of Homer” is, of course, Bart Simpson.

Here’s a rare sight: an interview with actor Conleth Hill, who so memorably plays the role of the eunuch master of whisperers, Varys. Hill, a noted and award-winning theater actor, largely discusses theater matters… but there are some remarks regarding Game of Thrones, including the fact that he originally read for a different role entirely before being offered the part of Varys.

Here’s a couple of fascinating tidbits from interviews with Ciarán Hinds and James Purefory, both who had been on HBO’s Rome—a fine show, one of the most lavish productions ever put to screen as a regular hour long drama—and who have been asked (for various reasons) to remark on HBO’s Game of Thrones. Of course, only one of these actors is actually on the show, but the other has been a fan-favorite when it comes to casting speculation…

First, of course, is Ciarán Hinds, the actor cast as Mance Rayder whom we recently glimpsed in HBO’s latest video. Speaking to Irish Central, Hinds had the following to say about the first season of the show when he decided to catch up to it:

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, everyone’s favorite Kingslayer, was recently in Canada to promote his new film, Mama, a Guillermo del Toro-produced horror film that’s been getting some positive press.

Of course, where there’s film promotion, there are interviews. One of the best interviewers in Canada is George Stroumboulopoulos, who had a great interview with George R.R. Martin last year, and it looks like his interview with Coster-Waldau is similarly interesting. Here’s

the whole interview which will air tonight on CBC Television at 7PM, and should be on-line at the George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight Youtube channel soon thereafter, which features some discussion of Game of Thrones at the 3:55 mark:

You may remember this from last year’s excellent season 1 Bluray set, when the Stark kids (Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Isaac Hempstead-Wright) provided an acapella rendition of the Game of Thrones theme.

Well… they’re back for more. It’s quite amusing (especially when Maisie breaks out into fits of giggles)! See below this excerpt from their commentary from the Season 2 Bluray (Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK) and DVD (Preorder: Amazon US, Amazon UK). The discs are set to be released on February 19th in the US, and we have more information about their full contents in this previous report.

A very interesting report has come by way of EW’s James Hibberd, revealing that while season 3 is still just 10 episodes—compared to the 12 episodes the other big HBO drama, Boardwalk Empire, gets—these episodes will often run 4-5 minutes longer than they did in the previous season, squeezing in just a bit more content per episode. If the season averages out to 57 minutes an episode, that would practically be equivalent to an 11 episode season at season 2’s run time.

And on top of that, it looks like the season finale is going to run 60 minutes, or perhaps even just beyond that, something that the executive producers Benioff and Weiss note requires special permission from HBO due to scheduling.

Here’s the relevant quotes:

An interesting new post on the Making Game of Thrones production blog, discussing in detail the techniques used to create a fiery sword that will feature prominently in a scene in the third season. The details are mildly spoilerish, so I’d suggest not going there if you really want to have no idea whatsoever as to why a sword might be on fire in season 3. It’s pretty interesting reading, in any case, if you’re interested in the nitty-gritty of production special effects techniques.

New cast member Iwan Rheon, whose casting confirmation we reported on awhile back, and whose role (“BOY”) has been the subject of a lot of well-founded speculation, was interviewed by the always-excellent Red Carpet News regarding his experience filming on the show and just who he worked with.

(Watch the interviewer rather cheekily taking a stab at Rheon’s character’s identity with his opening question):

(Thanks to CoolOff on the A Song of Ice and Fire Forum for bringing the interview to our attention.)

A brief but interesting update from the Making Game of Thrones production blog, discussing the fact that the introduction of Mance Rayder—played by Ciáran Hinds—was also Hind’s very first day of work, which was unusual. Daniel Minahan returns after his season 2 hiatus, as well, directing the first two epiodes of the season.

And, as a passing note, this confirms the return of Edward Dogliani as Rattleshirt, something which we didn’t really doubt, but hadn’t heard anything specific regarding it.