Monday, December 31, 2018

The Happy New Year House Stark Giveaway!

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Happy New Year, all you Game of Thrones Watchers out there! To kick off the exciting year ahead of us (is it April yet?), it’s time for another GoT giveaway. This one celebrates the central family of the show, House Stark, with an array of prizes up for grabs. This week’s worldwide giveaway will have THREE winners- that’s right, three winners so you have a better chance than ever to win some great merch to enjoy while you’re revving up for season 8.

For the next seven days, we’re accepting entries in the giveaway. To enter to win it, all you need to do is leave a comment here! See below for more entry methods and a closer look at the list of prizes.

Grand Prize: House Stark Winter is Coming Tankard

WInter is Coming House Stark tankard

The House Stark Winter is Coming tankard ($69.95) includes a light blue crest with the name and direwolf sigil baring its teeth. The upper rim features an icy chill, and the piece is lined with chains and wires, giving it a real Northern flair. The direwolf is doubly present with the armored handle. The tankard comes packaged in a Seven Kingdoms gift box which makes it perfect for display as a collectible or a present for your favorite nerd.

2nd Place: Jon Snow Beyond the Wall Funko Pop! Figure with The Night’s Watch Journal

Jon Snow Funko 61 Beyond the Wall Night's Watch Journal
Our 2nd place winner will take home a prize package featuring Jon Snow (Targaryen he may be, but his mother is all Stark!). The Jon Snow Beyond the Wall POP Vinyl from Funko! stands 3 3/4 inches and comes in a window display box. ($8.00) The former Night’s Watch Lord Commander needs a journal, of course (and naturally we’re a little partial to the organization here) so along with the figure comes The Night’s Watch Journal from Insight Editions. The journal features sewn binding,and 192 lined pages of high-quality heavy stock paper, along with a ribbon placeholder, elastic closure, and 7.5 x 4.5-inch back pocket. ($18.95)

3rd Place: House Stark Stationery Kit

House Stark Stationery Kit

Our lucky third place winner will be creating beautiful Thrones-style correspondence (hopefully none that can start a war) with the House Stark Stationery Set ($34.95). Each set has a 192-page ruled House Stark journal plus these exclusive items included as well:

Wax stamp featuring House sigil
Two wax sticks
Envelopes featuring House sigil
Paperweight featuring House sigil
Writing paper featuring House sigil
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How do you win? Leave a comment, or check out the other ways below!


The Official Rules

How do you enter? You can enter in 3 different ways, earning up to 3 total entries!

Method #1: Simply comment on this post!

Method #2: WotW Twitter: Follow our Twitter, WatchersOTWall, and retweet the Happy New Year House Stark giveaway tweet (you must do both for the extra entry). If you already follow us, no problem. Simply retweet the contest post.

Method #3: WotW Facebook: Like the WatchersontheWall Facebook page, and Like and Share the Happy New Year House Stark giveaway post (you must do both for the extra entry). If you already Like our page, again, no problem. Just share the contest post and you are entered!

Entries are accepted for seven days, closing the giveaway for entries on Monday, January 7, 2019 at 5PM ET. The winners will be randomly selected from the entries, and announced shortly thereafter.

**The contest is worldwide** Three (3) winners will be selected from among valid entrants by random drawing. The winners must respond within 72 hours of notification or will forfeit their prizes and another winner/s will be selected. Winners may be responsible for local taxes/importing fees. The winner/s must have a valid shipping address.

HBO, Twitter and Facebook are their own entities and are in no way associated with this giveaway.

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Saturday, December 22, 2018

The Night’s Cast Bonus Episode: It’s Happy Hour!

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‘Tis the season for giving gifts — go on, you deserve something nice!

If you’re scrambling for last-minute gift ideas for your fellow Game of Thrones obsessives — or for yourself, we won’t judge — then The Night’s Cast, the official podcast of Watchers on the Wall, is here with some suggestions! Four of them, in fact, as long as you’re of legal drinking age.

Join JoeMagician, Bex and Samantha as they review all four of Brewery Ommegang’s 2018 Royal Reserve collection beers on a bonus episode of the Night’s Cast!

The Night’s Cast is available on iTunes and SoundCloud, and you can follow us on Twitter as well. Happy listening!

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The Night’s Cast Episode 8: Season 6 recap, featuring special guest Sam Coleman!

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We welcome Young Hodor himself to The Night’s Cast this week!

Season 6 had one of the saddest and most poignant scenes in all of Game of Thrones, so we expected to be teary-eyed on the newest episode of The Night’s Cast, the official podcast of Watchers on the Wall, when we were joined by very special guest Sam Coleman — thankfully, there was a lot more laughter than there were tears!

Join Petra, Bex, Lady Geoffrey, Samantha and Young Hodor himself as they recap Season 6 and fit more drag queen references into a podcast about Game of Thrones than anyone thought possible.

The Night’s Cast is available on iTunes and SoundCloud, and you can follow us on Twitter as well. Happy listening!

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Iain Glen: Game of Thrones showrunners ‘absolutely paranoid’ about spoilers

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Iain Glen told Variety that the showrunners are very worried about Season 8 spoilers.

It might go without saying — and in fact it may have been said already — but Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) put it out there nonetheless: the producers of Game of Thrones are really, really worried about Season 8 spoilers getting out.

Glen talked with Variety recently about the lengths the show went to in order to keep the possibility of spoilers to a minimum, which included shooting fake scenes and forbidding hard copies of the script.

“They’re absolutely paranoid now about anyone finding out anything about the series and spoiling it,” he said in a BBC radio interview. “We weren’t allowed a written word on a page. Everything was accessed through iPads with different security you had to get through to access it, which caused a problem for the actors, I have to say.”

The extra security couldn’t have been too much of a problem, as the cast did sit down and read “the entire arc of the story from beginning to end right through over the course of a day,” Glen said, noting that it was the first season the cast had ever done a full read-through in such a short amount of time.

It was, as you might imagine, an emotional experience.

“There were a lot of tears that day…and it’s been a season of that because it’s been a season of farewells and finishes,” he said. “Kit [Harington], if he wasn’t lying, had not read it, so he was reading it on that day for the first time.”

Like other cast members who have been giving interviews over the last 18 months, Glen (to HBO’s great relief) was tight-lipped about details of Season 8, except to say that fans won’t be disappointed because “these six episodes are absolutely phenomenal. The writers really, really came up trumps….The way they pulled it all together was a real writing task.”

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“Surprisingly intimate” Season 8 may feature “longest battle in cinema history” & upcoming trailer teased by EW’s Hibberd!

EWGoT8pic copy

EW‘s cover story last month gave us an inside look into the final Game of Thrones season through the eyes of James Hibberd, but it appears that report wasn’t enough for him and so he’s decided to reveal even more about his final set visits. Among his teases, there’s the possibility that a first trailer for the final season could be coming soon!

EW’s Game of Thrones Weekly podcast, in which typically James Hibberd and Darren Franich review the latest episode as a new season airs, just released a special episode. Hibberd retreads some of the same ground of his cover story, but with new, juicy details.

“They spent 10 months filming six episodes of television, which would normally take about two months. That’s pretty crazy. And a lot of that wasn’t the big battle stuff, but the regular scenes of two people talking in a hallway,” he clarifies. “If it’s a scene that would normally take a day to shoot, they’d spend several days shooting, because they’re trying to so hard to get every little thing right. So they’d do take after take, from all sorts of different angles, so that in editing they have different ways to piece it together.”

“But the battle is the big sexy thing,” Hibberd concedes. “It’s shaping up to be what probably almost certainly is the longest consecutive battle sequence in cinema history. They’ve looked to try and find other ones out there, like [the one in] The Two Towers, in The Lords of the Rings, which is about 40 minutes, and the movie 13 Assassins, which was also around 40 minutes. This is going to be longer than 40 minutes. It’s pretty nuts.”

This battle, which naturally takes place in Winterfell, called for a much grander Stark castle than we’ve ever seen. According to Hibberd, the crew was up to the challenge:

“They massively expanded the Winterfel set. You can wander around, point the camera at any direction and it shows more Winterfell. One of the directors pointed out that even in a big budget Marvel or Star Wars movie, they usually only build what the actors are gonna stand directly in front of and fill in the rest with green screen. But for this set, and a few others too, they built it as a 360º set, so you don’t have to fill it in with special effects; you don’t have to favor one particular angle; you can have cameras follow people around; you can do unusual angles and come up with different things on the day of shooting. So it allows a lot more creativity, and it helps the actors. No acting required. They’re running around these sets, fighting, with fake blood on the snow, snow flying everywhere, torches burning, fires and smoke; it feels like you’re right there.”

We reported on the much-expanded Winterfell set during filming

We reported on the much-expanded Winterfell set during filming

That said, Hibberd saw much more than grand spectacle: “There’s been so much focus on the ‘spectacularness’ of the battles, but they’re not skimping on the one-on-one scenes and the character scenes. I think people are going to be surprised about how intimate the final season is, in addition to the spectacular stuff that you’re expecting.”

“What you want in any final season is things to be unexpected but also make sense,” he concludes. “So you don’t want anything to surprise you for surprise’s sake. You want everything to feel earned and to look back and go ‘okay, yeah, I could see how they were building to that.’ And from that I know from the final season, it does that.”

Hibberd also discusses the emotional table read, which was thoroughly covered in the original report (though he adds, speculatively, that it might have been filmed for a future Blu-Ray extra or the like), as well as the heightened security on set and the anxiety that knowing so much about the final season feels, which he describes as “carrying around the pop culture nuclear codes in your head.” This results in a hilarious tangent about a session Hibberd had with a therapist who just so happened to be a Game of Thrones fan. You can imagine how that went. Or better yet, listen to the episode!

Finally, Hibberd theorizes a trailer may be coming quite soon, which might have something to do with an interview he just published with Deadwood producer Carolyn Strauss, who isn’t only producing the exciting Deadwood film but also Game of Thrones:

“The new season is looking fantastic. It’s really kind of staggering in its accomplishment — and we still have a lot of work to do on those as well,” Strauss says.

When asked about when we can expect a full trailer for the final season, she says “I gotta believe something is going to come out before too long.”

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Richard Madden Dishes on His Prediction for the Game of Thrones End Game

Robb's execution of Rickard Karstark

Boldly going where no one has gone before, Richard Madden (Robb Stark) made his very educated guess as to where Game of Thrones will conclude its storyline. In speaking with The Hollywood Reporter about his new miniseries, global megahit, Bodyguard, as has often become the trend with actors to graduate from the school of GOT, every time they get out, they get pulled Right. Back. In.

It doesn’t take much for the former GOT cast (and there are many of them) to gab about their fondness for, and predictions of the show and its storylines. “I was a kid when I started Game of Thrones and I learned a lot through it and grew up doing it and left at the right point when I was outgrowing that age of that character, just in terms of the way I was growing. I was growing in age but the character wasn’t much,” he says.

I love that Madden considers Robb Stark a kid. In the books, the character is definitely a kid at 14 years old, but in the show, as with most of the children on the show, he’d been aged up significantly. Although, Robb’s stubborn refusal to listen to his mother’s counsel that, well, kinda got them all killed definitely suggests some childlike tendencies to me, so he may be on to something…

As he’s previously mentioned, Madden has stayed an avid viewer of his erstwhile program: “I can’t wait for the new season. I kind of don’t recognize that I was in it anymore because I’ve been watching so many years of it, and they talk about Robb Stark and I know who he is but I don’t see myself in that role. I’m just a viewer now, which is so good. That was one of the bad things about being in the show is you got the scripts so you knew what was going to happen next, and I’ve not had that for years, so now I can just truly enjoy it as a viewer, which is thrilling.”

Doesn’t see himself in the role anymore? Wow, has it really been that long? *checks calendar* – Over 5 ½ years since The Red Wedding AIRED, which means that he hasn’t filmed a day as Robb Stark in roughly 6 ½ years?! Righto. Carry on!

Lastly, the common question we all knew was coming was asked of Madden. When prompted to suggest his suspected Iron Throne claimant and ultimate victor, he’s rather coy: “I kind of think it’s just going to be three dragons flying around and everyone else is dead. It’s a possibility!”

Positive thinking over there, Mr. Madden. Alrighty now, I’m off to Netflix to watch Bodyguard. In the meanwhile, what do you make of Richard Madden’s comments/highly scientific prediction?

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Benioff & Weiss are Back for Round 2 of Game of Thrones Whisky Tasting and Trivia!

Dalwhinnie House Stark

The fun began yesterday with part one of A Game of Whisky Tasting and Trivia, and will carry on today as we exclusively unveil the final four videos in the series! Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss sample the official Game of Thrones Single Malt Scotch Whisky Collection (announced a couple months back and available nationwide now wherever spirits are sold) while fielding trivia questions about the show and its characters. This time, D&D take on Houses Stark, Baratheon, Greyjoy and Tyrell. How did they do? Watch and find out!

Game of Thrones House Stark – Dalwhinnie Winter’s Frost (SRP: $39.99 for 750ml; ABV 43%)

Game of Thrones House Baratheon – Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old (SRP: $64.99 for 750ml; ABV 40%)

Game of Thrones House Greyjoy – Talisker Select Reserve (SRP: $44.99 for 750ml; ABV 45.8%)

Game of Thrones House Tyrell – Clynelish Reserve (SRP: $59.99 for 750ml; ABV 51.2%)

(I like how you can see them getting progressively drunker throughout the videos.)

The complete collection is available now, and makes a beautiful holiday gift and addition to any GoT nerd’s shelf.

White Walker by Johnnie Walker (SRP: $36 for 750ml; ABV 41.7%)

Game of Thrones House Stark – Dalwhinnie Winter’s Frost; SRP: $39.99 for 750ml; ABV 43%

Game of Thrones House Targaryen – Cardhu Gold Reserve; SRP: $39.99 for 750ml; ABV 40%

Game of Thrones House Lannister – Lagavulin 9 Year Old; SRP: $64.99 for 750ml; ABV 46%

Game of Thrones House Greyjoy – Talisker Select Reserve; SRP: $44.99 for 750ml; ABV 45.8%

Game of Thrones House Baratheon – Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old; SRP: $64.99 for 750ml; ABV 40%

Game of Thrones House Tully – Singleton of Glendullan Select; SRP: $29.99 for 750ml; ABV 40%

Game of Thrones House Tyrell – Clynelish Reserve; SRP: $59.99 for 750ml; ABV 51.2%

Game of Thrones The Night’s Watch – Oban Bay Reserve; SRP: $62.99 for 750ml; ABV 43%

Happy holidays and happy drinking!

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Saturday, December 15, 2018

‘Game of Thrones’ was Comcast’s number one video-on-demand show of 2018

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You know a show is good when it’s been off the air for a year and still ranks at the top for viewers.

Chalk this up to the influence of being the world’s most-watched TV show: despite not airing since August of 2017, Game of Thrones was cable provider Comcast’s number one video-on-demand (VOD) show of 2018, according to figures from the company.

USA Today reported that Thrones ranked at the top of VOD among its more than 22 million subscribers from Jan. 1 to Dec. 5 this year.

“The fact that that show is still ranked No. 1 across the board when it wasn’t even current is pretty incredible. It shows just how large of a following that show has (and) how new people are still discovering it,” Brynn Lev, VP of editorial and programming at Comcast Cable, told USA Today.

Thrones ranked number one nationally and in 9 of Comcast’s 12 major markets: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. No word from Comcast as to how the show fared in King’s Landing, Oldtown or Sunspear.

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A Game of Whisky Tasting and Trivia, with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss!

DND

One of the most fun additions to the Game of Thrones merch scene this year was the introduction of a Thrones-themed collection of single malt whiskies, celebrating the Great Houses of Westeros, the Night’s Watch, and our chilly friends in the North. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss get in on the fun now with a brand new series of videos debuting here! Over the next two days, Watchers on the Wall is happy to share with you D&D tasting each malt while answering trivia.

The Game of Thrones Single Malt Scotch Whisky Collection is available nationwide now wherever fine spirits are sold, so get it while you can. For collecting or for drinking-  it’s your call.

First up for the taste-test? A liquor inspired by an organization close to our hearts…

Game of Thrones The Night’s Watch – Oban Bay Reserve (SRP: $62.99 for 750ml; ABV 43%)

White Walker by Johnnie Walker (SRP: $36 for 750ml; ABV 41.7%)

Game of Thrones House Lannister – Lagavulin 9 Year Old (SRP: $64.99 for 750ml; ABV 46%)

Game of Thrones House Targaryen – Cardhu Gold Reserve (SRP: $39.99 for 750ml; ABV 40%)

Game of Thrones House Tully – Singleton of Glendullan Select (SRP: $29.99 for 750ml; ABV 40%)

Swing by tomorrow for more whisky-sipping fun as D&D take on Houses Stark, Baratheon, Greyjoy and Tyrell! I’m off for Christmas shopping, and my list just took on a decidedly more malted tang. If my tweets are slurred and misspelled later, you know who to blame.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2018

“Game of Thrones: The Touring Exhibition” moves to Belfast as the final season begins!

Game of Thrones Belfast Touring Exhibition

Game of Thrones: The Touring Exhibition continues, at long last! This detailed look at the authentic props, costumes and set decorations from Game of Thrones first showed up in Barcelona, which we reviewed here at Watchers, but if you didn’t have the opportunity to attend, you will have another one soon, and at the headquarters of the Game of Thrones production, no less, in the same month the show returns for a final time!

The Touring Exhibition will make its debut visit to the UK and Ireland at Belfast’s Titanic Exhibition Centre, from 11th April to 1st September 2019.

Reportedly, “the dramatic exhibition combines costumes, authentic props and majestic settings from all seven seasons to create an interactive and immersive Game of Thrones® experience like no other. Located at the TEC Belfast, in the foot print of the legendary Titanic Studios, where much of the series was filmed over a 10-year period, allows fans to authentically immerse themselves in the mythical lands of Westeros and Essos, as well as relive the trials and tribulations of those who struggle for survival in the shadow of the Iron Throne, ahead of the highly anticipated season eight release.”

8 Costumes

Considering the show’s still-standing sets are right next to the exhibition, one would think that would be part of the experience, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. HBO has said this will happen in 2019, but perhaps it’ll be part of a different exhibition. Meanwhile, you can book tickets for this limited-time exhibition here!

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Monday, December 10, 2018

George R.R. Martin assures ‘Winds’ is coming and drops hints for future projects

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George R.R. Martin has posted a new — and very interesting — entry on his blog.

It’s no secret that people are really anxious for The Winds of Winter, the long-awaited sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. It’s been nearly eight years since the most recent installment, A Dance With Dragons, was published in 2011, and the popularity of the series has only grown since the show premiered that same year. Some are also increasingly worried that George R.R. Martin won’t actually finish the books, despite recent reports that he’s holed up in the same undisclosed location he goes to when he’s worked on previous books. Hopefully, a recent post from George himself will do even more to put those fears to rest.

In an entry on his blog titled “Two Weeks to Remember,” George starts by expressing his gratitude for the warm reception for the recently published Fire & Blood, the first half of a sprawling history of the Targaryens — from his appearance on Late Night with Stephen Colbert to the sold-out launch event in his home state of New Jersey.

The intriguing part of the entry came at the end, when he not only thanked his fans for their patience in waiting for Winds, he assured us all that the book — and some other projects — are coming:

“And most of all, my thanks go out to my fans and readers. I know you want WINDS, and I am going to give it to you… but I am delighted that you stayed with me for this one as well. Your patience and unflagging support means the world to me.

Enjoy the read. Me, I am back in my fortress of solitude, and back in Westeros. It won’t be tomorrow, and it won’t be next week, but you will get the end of A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.  Meanwhile, you have the final season of GAME OF THRONES coming, and the new show that is not yet officially called THE LONG NIGHT being cast, and a couple more shows still being scripted… and a few other cool things in the works as well.

Winter is not the only thing that is coming.”

Not only does George again reference the “fortress of solitude” he writes from, but he gave some tantalizing hints that more is on the horizon. We know about the spin-off currently in the works, but more shows being scripted? Other “cool things” in the pipeline? Let us know what you think he means!

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Jason Momoa reprises Khal Drogo role in SNL Game of Thrones parody!

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It’s been 5 seasons since we’ve seen Khal Drogo’s face on Game of Thrones. Following his death at the end of season 1, he made a brief appearance to Dany during her vision in The House of the Undying, when she saw her life as it could have been had he lived. As the years have gone on, our hopes of another Khal Drogo apparition have slowly waned. But as they say, just when you think he’s out, they pull him back in…to SNL (Saturday Night Live) of all places.

When it was announced that Jason Momoa was hosting SNL for the first time, I felt a flurry of excitement. Not only is Momoa our Khal Drogo now and forever, but he’s also seemingly such a cool, likable dude. So, the question on everyone’s lips was if he’d reprise the role that launched him to global stardom. The answer is, of course, a resounding yes:

In “Khal Drogo’s Ghost Dojo,” a sketch brought to us courtesy of Dothraki Public Access, one of my favorite humans on the planet, Kenan Thompson, plays newly minted bloodrider, Zerbo. It quickly becomes apparent that, like Khal Drogo, the sketch will be all about bringing back dead characters for a ‘talk show.’ Who did they bring back and what was the joke? Why watch the video when I can tell you all about it!

Hodor (Beck Bennett) shows up and exercises his typically verbose grasp on language. On his way out, he is asked (naturally) to hold the door for the next guest, which was The High Sparrow (Pete Davidson), who, upon realizing that both he and Khal Drogo have ended up in the same heaven, his life of holiness may have been for nothing. “Almost makes you question religion,” he quips. Following this, Khal Drogo gives him his trademark ‘golden crown,’ and off the High Sparrow goes. Then, a very confused Brienne (Heidi Gardner) pops up, and questions Khal Drogo’s questionable identity politics, to the likely applause of many Twitter pundits everywhere. Lastly, a character everyone is happy is dead, Joffrey, played by SNL everywoman Kate McKinnon, turns up and stages a fight with Olenna Tyrell (Aidy Bryant) in a…Jerry Springer(?) mashup. I’m not sure what happened here; this one was confusing for me. Ah well.

Throughout the sketch, there was a running joke about how fast the show will kill off a character, leaving them with many options for characters for this sketch. All in all, it’s pleasant escape for 6 minutes of your time, and now that you’ve read a full synopsis of it, do please go and enjoy the actual sketch!

Did everyone enjoy the rest of the episode? Sound off on Jason Momoa’s SNL debut in the comments below!

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