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Wednesday, July 31, 2019
The Game of Thrones fandom, up close and personal
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Emmys Talk: Game of Thrones Finale Script Online, Nominees Episode Choices and More
The Emmys aren’t until September so that gives the Game of Thrones fandom plenty of time to squabble and debate over the final season! Luckily this week has given us loads of material to work with. Emmys.com has published the series finale script online, since the episode was nominated for the writing award, GoldDerby has revealed the episode choice for many of the show’s stars who are nominated, and one nominated actress discusses her work on the last season.
The entirety of the script for season 8, episode 6, “The Iron Throne” can now be found online at the official Emmys site. The episode, written by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, was a controversial nominee, for some. It’s always fascinating to pore over the scripts, as they show fans that writing is much more than dialogue. It shows how carefully planned the imagery is (like it or not).
Read over the script and see what strikes you!
GoldDerby always has the goods on awards season. They have the exclusive on which episodes the stars of GoT have chosen to submit to represent their work, for their nomination this year.
Best Actress nominee Emilia Clarke has submitted “The Last of the Starks” to Emmys voters, an episode in which Daenerys does a lot of heavy lifting and ultimately loses her friend. It’s more sympathetic than the darker, later episodes, so maybe it’s a strategic choice.
Best Actor nominee Kit Harington is submitting “The Iron Throne,” in hopes it will win him the Emmy. It was a dark moment for Jon Snow, with the killing of Daenerys and his conversation with Tyrion. Will it be enough? We’ll see.
Best Supporting Actor nominees:
- Peter Dinklage has submitted the series finale “The Iron Throne” to rep his work. Since Tyrion carried the episode in a lot of ways, that makes sense.
- Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has chosen “The Bells” for his nom. He did good work in the episode as Jaime, but it’s not going to be a popular fandom choice, I can tell you that.
Best Supporting Actress nominees:
- Sophie Turner has submitted the season 8 premiere episode “Winterfell” for her nom. Sansa had a lot to do in “Winterfell” but it’s not as flashy as some other episodes.
- Lena Headey unsurprisingly has submitted “The Bells” for her nom, which features Cersei’s end, with the destruction of King’s Landing.
- Gwendoline Christie is submitting “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” for her nomination- which makes sense since it was Brienne’s big moment.
Maisie Williams and Alfie Allen have not revealed their Emmy choices, as far as I know. It’s difficult to imagine Allen choosing anything other than “The Long Night,” but stranger things have happened.
Carice van Houten returned for just one episode this year, bringing her flames back to Westeros and the side of good in “The Long Night. The actress talked to GoldDerby this week about Melisandre’s morality, the filming of the episode, and a lot more. My favorite tidbits though- who would she like to have seen Melisandre have scenes with?
She says, “So many. I would’ve loved to have scenes with Cersei. I’m so curious what those two women would be together, what kind of dynamic that would be, what kind of energy that would bring. Samwell Tarly would’ve been a fun scene, I think. He’s one of my favorite characters. Joffrey, but unfortunately that never happened. I don’t think it will ever happen.”
Imagine Mel having a normal chat with Sam. Or terrorizing Joffrey. That would be fun.
She tells GoldDerby, her final filming was the burning the trenches- “that was with a big green screen so it wasn’t very romantic or anything. She explains, “It was a very intense scene to do and it was mixed with my own emotions of it being my last scene and saying goodbye has never been my favorite thing in the world. It was quite a loaded day, you could say. A lot of tension had to come out after I’d done that scene and I just started crying like a baby. I didn’t really see that coming. I just was overwhelmed by emotion. I just couldn’t stop crying.”
Read the complete interview at GoldDerby!
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Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Monday, July 29, 2019
The Redemption Arc That Wasn’t: a Con of Thrones Interview with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
For my last interview at Con of Thrones I had the privilege of chatting with none other than the Kingslayer himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who shared his thoughts on redemption, forgiveness and how those concepts apply (or don’t apply) to Jaime Lannister’s arc.
]“I think with Jaime’s arc, there’s been so much talk about how his was a redemption arc and I never saw that,” Coster-Waldau tells me. “I never saw him as a guy who needed redemption as such. I just saw him as a guy who had some very specific circumstances in his life … you know, the whole Kingslayer thing on the surface was about him being dishonorable. So now he needed to redeem himself because he did this horrible thing when, in fact, [killing the king] was probably his proudest moment.”
That’s not to say that Coster-Waldau believes Jaime had no arc, however.
“The big thing, of course, was losing his hand. That forced him to become a different version of himself,” he says. “He was a great fighter. He was always a great soldier. He was always a great son and brother. He would do anything for his family and he continued that but now he had to be smarter. He had to use his brains, he had to learn from his siblings, and from his father. One of the best moments, I thought, was when he captured Riverrun without killing anyone and also when he took all the gold from Olenna Tyrell. He accomplished a lot of very successful campaigns in his own right with his smarts and not his sword skills.
By season 8, Jaime Lannister had, indeed, changed drastically from the man who pushed Bran out of a window. But character development and self-improvement don’t necessarily equate to redemption.
“So, the redemption arc that people wanted, as I understand it is, was that he would become an all-out good guy who would then cut off his ties with his family or at least with his sister, join the good fight and then declare everlasting love of Brienne and they would stay together and that would then make him a good guy,” the actor says. “I think that’s a little … but that’s not Game of Thrones. I don’t’ believe that you can just erase your previous life because you go, ‘okay, now I’m going to be a good guy.’”
And according to Coster-Waldau, Jaime believed that redeeming himself would have required just that: erasing his past.
“What’s so beautiful about [his final] scene with Brienne is that when he says goodbye to her and she cries with this overwhelming sadness that this guy can’t acknowledge that it’s okay to be flawed,” Coster-Waldau says. “He has done horrible things in the name of love, as he calls it, but also in the name of existing in this crazy world that they live in but he can’t forgive himself.
“He can’t just cut off who he was, you know, and the idea of leaving his sister alone is just simply impossible to him. I think that’s very truthful to the character.”
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Sunday, July 28, 2019
WiC Weekly: July 21-27
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Nathalie Emmanuel Rejects Toxic Fan Backlash to Game of Thrones Season 8
Game of Thrones has been resting peacefully for about 2 months now, or at least it would, if only anyone would let it. In the wake of the finale, fan fervor, enthusiastically by all accounts positive or negative, has truly reached heights the likes of which haven’t been seen since LOST ended in 2010. While the Internet was certainly ablaze back then – “I wasted all these years of my life all for this crappy ending!” was a common phrase even back in those simpler times – now, in the age of thinkpieces and online watercooler-ing, it seems as though the negative voices have emerged ever victorious amidst the discourse. And such, we have found ourselves with an echo-chamber of over a million signatures, smugly adorning the fan-led petition to remake season 8 with “competent writers.” Thankfully, our very own Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei) is firmly not on board.
Speaking with TVLine, Nathalie concedes that “[I]t’s totally fine if you don’t like something.” She, like all of us, is an audience participant in enjoying art. But she hits the nail on the head when she says of the petition: “You can’t ask for receipts on art. You just can’t. The art has been created for you, and you can either choose to like it or not.” I feel very similarly to her. You can talk to death about what it should have been, but ultimately it isn’t yours. It isn’t your art. It is someone else’s art that you were trying to enjoy. Maybe you didn’t. And that’s OK! So, create your own art.
Nathalie also discusses her final scenes, and what worked for her as an actor: “I was very grateful for the strength that she had when she left. That was a performance choice for me…She’s not going to be crying. She’s not going to be stereotypically scared. She’s scared, but she owns it.” I’m sure I speak for many of us when I say I extend a hearty thank you to Nathalie for pouring her soul into Missandei over the course of 6 seasons of television. Ultimately she was herself “blown away” by the finale.
Check out the interview for several more quotes.
Up next for Nathalie? She’ll lead the cast in Hulu’s upcoming miniseries re-remake of Four Weddings and a Funeral. Her American accent actually sounds pretty damn good in the trailer, something you don’t always see in most shows or movies. If she brings the same passion to this new project as she always did to Game of Thrones, then it could truly turn into something special.
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Saturday, July 27, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
Naomi Watts stays tight-lipped about ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel, Miranda Richardson is ‘thrilled’ to be involved and more
Naomi Watts appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s late show recently, but divulged no details about the coming Game of Thrones prequel.
Filming may have wrapped on the pilot for the highly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel, but naturally, the cast still has to keep quiet until the series is both greenlit (slim chance of that not happening, if we’re being honest) and filming resumes on the rest of the episodes. Case in point: Naomi Watts, one of the prequel’s leads, deflecting like a boss on a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
“Can we talk about the Game of Thrones prequel?” Fallon says in the clip, as the audience applauds. “Are we not allowed to discuss anything?”
“No,” Watts says, shaking her head — and the Oscar-nominated actress immediately shuts down any further discussion by turning to The Roots, Fallon’s house band, and shouting “Tequila!” The band obliges, launching into The Champs’ 1958 hit song.
“That’s the way to get out of it,” Fallon says after the song. “We won’t talk about it but I am very excited about it and congrats.”
Speaking of staying tight-lipped, HBO president of programming Casey Bloys confirmed during the Television Critics Association press tour this week that the network is still considering “one or two more scripts” when it comes to additional Thrones spin-offs.
“We’re gonna see what happens with this one,” he said, referring to what is being called Blood Moon (as the network hasn’t confirmed this as the official title, we will continue to refer to it as a working or production title until we know for sure).
In addition, one of the prequel’s other leads, Miranda Richardson, spoke with Digital Spy recently and while she didn’t give away any plot details, she seemed enthusiastic about the “storytelling” aspect of the series and following in the footsteps of Thrones.
“I’ve loved the storytelling in that series, and the wish and the will is to continue that with a totally different set of elements and people,” she said. “The work has been phenomenal throughout and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
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The Night’s Cast Bonus Episode: LIVE at Con of Thrones 2019!
Axey, Oz of Thrones, Vanessa, JoeMagician, Pat Sponaugle, Petra, Bex and Samantha recorded a live episode of The Night’s Cast at this year’s Con of Thrones!
This year’s Con of Thrones may have come and gone, but there’s plenty of memories and lots of material to roll out, starting with a very special LIVE episode of The Night’s Cast, the official podcast of Watchers on the Wall!
The podcast was recorded Sunday, July 14th and included an all-star cast of contributors: Axey, Oz of Thrones, Vanessa, JoeMagician, Pat Sponaugle, Petra, Bex and Samantha. If you weren’t able to join us in Nashville, you can hear us talk all about our choices for Best Character Moments and hear a rousing rendition of “Happy Nameday,” sung in honor of Pat’s birthday!
The podcast is available on iTunes and SoundCloud, and you can follow us on Twitter as well. Happy listening!
**NOTE: If you have 10 minutes to spare, we’d love your help in getting nominated for the 2019 Podcast Awards! Visit their website and sign up for a free account to select The Night’s Cast from the Entertainment and People’s Choice categories (you can vote for us for both!). Nominations are open until July 31. If we get enough votes, we make the final ballot for August! Help us bring home some hardware for the bookshelf!**
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Thursday, July 25, 2019
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
HBO Exec Comments on the Status of the Game of Thrones Prequel- and those Self-Submitted Emmy Noms!
It’s time once again for the TCA press tour- summer edition, when TV execs trot out their best lines for the gathered press, and we glean what we can about the future of our favorite shows! Casey Bloys, head of HBO Programming, was on hand this time to address questions about the Game of Thrones spinoff, the Emmys, and more.
According to Vanity Fair, Bloys states that spinoff showrunner Jane Goldman is “busy in the edit bay” now, since filming’s completed. Those who have been following the shooting of the new pilot are aware that filming finished mid-July in Italy, but the exec confirms it. “The only status I have for you right now,” Bloys said, “is that we finished shooting the prequel. [We’re] very excited by the footage we saw of the cast.”
He diplomatically addresses the Emmy nominations, and the fact that the network itself didn’t submit all the performers would up securing a nomination. According to him, the network is behind their actors whether or not they submitted them. He says, “Thrones is unique…because it has 20-something series regulars.” The gist of it is that, as many have assumed, the network doesn’t want their actors to cancel each other out. “There is some strategic thinking,” he said.
But he also noted that when it comes to those nominated- “we’ll help them out.”
Visit Vanity Fair to read how HBO reacted to that fan petition and more!
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The Social Ascent of Bronn: a Con of Thrones Interview with Jerome Flynn
I had the privilege of interviewing Jerome Flynn at this year’s Con of Thrones. We discussed his amiably amoral character, Bronn, what motivated him, and how Flynn imagines Westeros’ future will go with Bronn as its Master of Coin.
Reviewing all eight seasons, it’s quite possible that Bronn had the greatest social ascent of any character in Game of Thrones’ cast of thousands, beginning season one as a sellsword in a country inn and wrapping up season eight as the Lord of Highgarden and Master of Coin of the Six Kingdoms. While other characters’ goals evolved over time, Flynn says that Bronn remained “single-minded” in his pursuits.
“He had a strong intention which lead him through the whole show: he wanted his castle,” Flynn says. “He was clever. He followed the clues that were in front of him and took his chances when he had them. His last chance, when he was handed the crossbow, he turned into the bartering tool that he needed to seal the deal [for Highgarden] with the Lannister boys.”
He hastens to add: “I don’t think he would have killed them but he had to make them think that perhaps it was a possibility.”
Bronn and Tyrion’s relationship always did seem to walk a razor’s edge. Flynn believes Bronn did “have a fondness” for Tyrion, which he would have liked to have seen developed further in season eight.
“I got attached to a certain part of him in terms of his relatioships, let’s say, with Tyrion,” he says. “And I think I wanted him to be more heroic. But that was my personal thing. I thought it was an opportunity for Bronn to suddenly turn up next and save Tyrion’s life fighting the White Walkers. But then if I’d been the writer then the whole story probably would have gone completely differently.”
He adds: “I really respect [David Benioff and Weiss] for sticking to a certain element of Bronn that was out for himself.”
Bronn’s approach certainly paid off … literally! Bronn’s appointment as Master of Coin took many viewers by surprise but Flynn seems confident that Westeros’ economy will survive the experience, not because of Bronn’s financial savviness but because Tyrion will have his back.
“I think Tyrion might have taken him to one side after that last table meeting and said, ‘Come on, dude. We’ve got to play ball here, and you can’t just have everything you want.’” Flynn says, referencing Bronn’s push to reopen King’s Landing’s brothels. “I think he’s there because of Tyrion. I think Tyrion understands why he did what he did. So I would imagine Tyrion would be trying to counsel him.”
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Tuesday, July 23, 2019
WiC Reads: Blood of Elves
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Monday, July 22, 2019
The Night’s Cast Episode 25: Emmys talk, prequel news and farewell to Con of Thrones
Water dancing lessons with guest Miltos Yerolemou, shown here in 2018, continue to be a popular draw for Con of Thrones — just part of what we discuss in this week’s episode!
Emmy nominations are out, the Game of Thrones prequel continues filming, another year of Con of Thrones has come and gone — there’s plenty for The Night’s Cast, the official podcast of Watchers on the Wall, to chew over this week. So they dug in!
Join Vanessa, Samantha, Petra and Akash on this week’s episode, in which we discuss the highs and lows of the 32 Emmy nominations that Thrones garnered; the most recent prequel filming news (also known as the “Sam refuses to believe we WON’T we see the Rhoynar” segment); and the third annual Con of Thrones, including our favorite moments.
The podcast is available on iTunes and SoundCloud, and you can follow us on Twitter as well. Happy listening!
**NOTE: If you have 10 minutes to spare, we’d love your help in getting nominated for the 2019 Podcast Awards! Visit their website and sign up for a free account to select The Night’s Cast from the Entertainment and People’s Choice categories (you can vote for us for both!). Nominations are open until July 31. If we get enough votes, we make the final ballot for August! Help us bring home some hardware for the bookshelf!**
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Sunday, July 21, 2019
WiC Weekly: July 14-20
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The Best of Game of Thrones at San Diego Comic Con 2019!
Maarten de Boer/@iheartmaarten/TV Insider
The final Game of Thrones Hall H panel at San Diego Comic Con may not have delivered any big revelations, but the con did provide an opportunity to show off the newest GoT merch and it brought out the show’s stars for a round of appearances and autographs, as always. Here is the panel recording, and the new products we have to look forward this year! Thankfully, the official Game of Thrones/HBO Facebook saved us all a trip to California by snapping pics of all the major GoT-friendly booths at SDCC. Let’s have a look!
USAopoly offers a sneak peek of their custom Game of Thrones chess set (booth #1028), coming soon and available for pre-order now. I love the look of this and I’m pretty excited about it.
The Chronicle Books booth ( booth #1506) displays several items, most of them already available such as the coloring book and Twin Pin sets. The new item is Game of Thrones: A Guide to Westeros and Beyond, The Complete Series, by Myles McNutt, available for pre-order currently and set to be released in November. Chronicle’s site describes the book as offering a “a unique and exciting visual exploration of the world of Game of Thrones,” and says the book is filled “with bold infographics, illuminating timelines, stunning photography and insightful essays.”
Check out the new Mega Construx sets at Mattel’s booth (#3029) featuring a full battle of ice and fire:
Take the Iron (gold?) Throne for yourself at Factory Entertainment’s booth (#2743), and enjoy their other Game of Thrones-inspired pieces while you’re there.
Insight Editions has an attractive array of merch on display with Game of Thrones: The Storyboards, by William Simpson, The Photography of Game of Thrones, Lovepop cards, and Dragon Egg candles.
Swing by booth 2544 to check out these new GoT figures created by The Loyal Subjects.
There’s a detailed new Daenerys figure at the McFarlane booth (#917). The 6-inch scale toy is available now. If House Stark is where your allegiances lie, head over to booth 2615 to check out the Stark Sigil Mini Sculpture from Dark Horse Comics.
Three Zero is continuing its incredible collection of Game of Thrones figures with Season 8. Visit them at booth #1929.
Titans is showing their new products including this exclusive three-pack of dragons at the con:
On Friday, at 5:30PM Pacific time, Game of Thrones stars Isaac Hempstead Wright, Conleth Hill, John Bradley, Maisie Williams, Jacob Anderson, Liam Cunningham and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau took to the stage in Hall H with Entertainment Weekly‘s James Hibberd acting as moderator. The cast did not field any audience questions this year (probably wisely since people were booing early on in the panel; not sure why anyone thought they would allow a Q&A after that?) but responded to a light set of questions. The cast seemed to have a good time, as they usually do when gathered. This appears to be a lighthearted and somewhat tentative victory lap rather than a serious postmortem. Given the hostile vibe from a portion of the crowd, it was probably a strange thing to walk into, as a moderator, an actor, or as a viewer. Overall, the cast handled themselves deftly.
Frankly a lot of media outlets have been twisting some of the comments from cast with their interpretation so I think it’s best to watch the panel for yourself to see what they had to say.
But yes, Jacob Anderson did confirm once again that Grey Worm has a dick. No balls, but dick. Anyway!
The cast swung by TVInsider for a fun round of photos and EW has a great photo gallery of photo highlights from the panel before and after. Meanwhile Maisie Williams is living her best life, attending afterparties and looking the cutest.
Safe to say there will be no Thrones-ian presence at SDCC next year! (Unless you count the inevitable panel for The Eternals– good on you, Richard Madden!) Some of us were speculating at Con of Thrones about the release of the GoT prequel, assuming the pilot is successful and ordered to series. We probably won’t see a spinoff-connected SDCC panel until 2021 at the earliest, would be my guess.
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