To celebrate the impending release of the Game of Thrones Season 5 home boxset, HBO and Dolby Laboratories are going to hold a screening of “Hardhome,” the biggest hit of the season, at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London. The Season 5 boxset comes out on March 15, and the screening will be on March 14. Doors open at 6:15 pm, and guests are to be seated by 7:00.
Obviously, this information is of limited use to fans who don’t live in the area, but it seems like an exclusive event even for locals. There will be “celebrity fans” in the audience, plus a Q&A afterwards with some “special guests.” Mysterious. Luckily, a few places are giving away free tickets:
CE Pro Europe is handing out a pair of tickets, although its contest, which runs through March 11, seems to be limited to its clients. To sweeten the pot, its throwing in a copy of the Season 5 boxset. Enter here.
“Hardhome” will be shown in Dolby Atmos surround sound, meaning it’ll sound so real you’ll think the wights are coming right at you.
This scene was cut from the Season 5 premiere, and shows Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) and Alliser Thorne (Owen Teale) squaring off in the Castle Black courtyard. Thorne implies that, given his druthers, he’d have Tormund executed, Tormund reminds Alliser that he doesn’t have the power to make that call (this is before the Night’s Watch elects anyone as a new Lord Commander), and Thorne stalks off, miffed.
Of all the deleted scenes on the Season 5 boxset, this is the one that has the most impact on the story. It doesn’t have a TON of impact, mind you—viewers can still understand Thorne’s motivations without it—but you can draw a clear line from this scene, in which Thorne makes it clear he’s not happy about housing wildlings at Castle Black, and the final scene of the year, in which he carries out his plan to assassinate Jon Snow on account of the latter’s pro-wildling stance.
The Game of Thrones Season 5 DVD boxset comes out on March 15. Look for more on it closer to the release date.
Spoiler warning for anyone who doesn’t want to know what MIGHT happen in Season 6.
At the end of last year, we told you that English actor Ian McShane had been cast in the next season of Game of Thrones.
His role was unknown, but when appearing this morning on BBC Breakfast he gave away some clues about who he'd be playing and what his character would be getting up to.
Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images
He didn't say much, but what he did say could have huge ramifications on the show:
BBC
And if that didn't mean much to you, maybe this will:
Though your first instinct might be to think about a certain Lord Commander of the Night's Watch who is currently lying in a rather large pool of his own blood at Castle Black, book readers will be aware that McShane probably isn't talking about Jon Snow. So who? Well, not that we want to get your hopes up, but it looks like...
BBC
THE HOUND IS BACK!!!
That's right. There's a popular (though, as yet, unconfirmed) theory among book readers that rather than dying on the cliff face on which we last saw him, Sandor Clegane was instead found and nursed back to health by a man called the Elder Brother.
The Elder Brother was a knight who fought for House Targaryen during Robert's Rebellion before spending ten years in silence on the Quiet Isle – so that certainly seems to fit with McShane's description of his character.
Maisie Williams is following in the footsteps of her onscreen sister Sophie Turner. Last year, Turner had something of a coming out party on the pages of fashion magazines, including InStyle UK. This year, it’s Maisie’s turn to sport high fashion while doing her best not to spoil the upcoming season of Game of Thrones. She’s part of this year’s Brit Fashion Special, and cover girl for the April Issue.
With the debut of Game of Thrones Season 6 just over 50 days away, questions about the show surface. But instead of talking about the upcoming season, Williams chooses to discuss how she’s like Arya in real life: angry. “I’ve never said this in an interview before, but yeah, I have a temper. And I hate it! But that’s what worked with [playing] Arya. I know what it’s like to be really mad!”
She also discusses trying to live a normal life when you’re in the biggest show on earth. Fans approach her all the time, especially when she’s having a night out on the town. Usually she doesn’t get as mad as her friends do, though. “They’re like, ‘It’s not her!’ And I’m in this awkward position, since it is me. And I don’t want to upset anyone. But like I said, sometimes I’m really quiet. And so I’m stood with a fan and it’s like, silence. Sometimes they walk away and I just think, god, they’re really disappointed.”
Apparently, she’s really big on the “normal life” thing. While some of her costars date each other (e.g. Kit Harington and Rose Leslie) and some date other famous people (e.g. Gwendoline Christie and fashion designer Giles Deacon), she’s dating a guy she met in school. “People feel it’s strange that someone who’s famous can go out with someone who’s normal. I don’t meet anyone else. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but I don’t go to all these parties. I don’t meet the other young, male actors. I just like normal people, I guess.”
Her attempts to be normal and nice to everyone used to be her biggest issue.
I always used to say and do the right thing, but as I got older and formed my own opinions, I said things wrong [sic] and got in trouble. After going through all of that, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m never going to please everyone and so I should just be happy. You know, selfishly, that’s really all that matters. I’m not going to go out of my way to upset people, but if someone asks an honest question I’ll give them my honest answer. So I’ve come back to that point where I don’t want to do the tits and teeth, but I also don’t want to be angry and mean about everything. I’ll just be somewhere in the middle where I can be myself.
Too bad we can’t get her to say anything about Season 6. We’ll just have to content ourselves with the high fashion spread. For the rest of her looks, head over to InStyle UK.
In other Williams news, the actress has nabbed a role in A Storm in the Eyes, a movie about the relationship between writers Percy and Mary Shelley. Williams will play Isabel Baxter, Mary Shelley’s friend. Coincidentally, Stephen Dillane (best known to Thrones fans as Stannis Baratheon) will play Mary’s father, so maybe Arya and Stannis will finally share a scene…kinda.
There was big casting news for one of our Game of Thrones alumni who hasn’t even appeared on screen yet. Ian McShane, whose casting as a still-yet-unnamed character was one of the highest profile additions for Season 6 apparently won’t be on the show for long. He’s accepted a leading role in STARZ upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, playing the man known as “Mr. Wednesday.” (American Gods fans known that “Mr. Wednesday” is actually an alias. His true identity will be revealed down the line.)
Fans suspected that McShanes role was a one-off, and this is probably a good sign of that. But we still don’t know exactly who he’s playing. Or do we? On BBC Breakfast this morning, McShane was doing to rounds to promote his role as Sir Roger Scatcherd on Doctor Thorne, the ITV adaptation of the third installment from Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles of Barsetshire.
In the middle of it, he accidentally mentions Game of Thrones, and though he immediately claims he can’t tell us anything, he then proceeded to drop big circular hints about who his character is and what he’ll be up to this coming season.
A tight end became from underground like an Oiler Here like I never left, back like a spoiler
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“My character is an ex-warrior who’s become a peacenik. So I have this group of peaceful…it’s like a cult, peaceful tribe… who have brought back… I bring back this beloved character that everyone thinks is dead. So, I’ll leave it at that.”
An “ex warrior who has become a peacenik.” I can see where McShane thinks he’s being vague, and for those who haven’t read the books (a smaller and smaller group everyday!) this would be a nice vague description that might lead them to wonder if he’s referring to the Stoneheart character everyone always seems to get excited over.
For everyone else, this is telling us who he is in large flashing neon letters. The Elder Brother, who is in charge of an place called The Quiet Isle that Brienne visits in her wanderings as she searches for Sansa, is a former knight, who fought in the Battle of the Trident. He was knocked out to the point that his comrades thought him dead, so they did to him what all soldiers do to the dead–stole his armor, his clothes and his weapons. (After all, as The Hound points out to Arya once, the dead don’t need things like money.) His body floated downstream, and when he woke, he found himself at The Quiet Isle, stripped of all his worldly possessions. He saw this as a sign, joined their order, took a vow of silence, which he maintained for ten years.
As we discussed in our spoiler round up, The Hound has been rumored to be returning this season, even though the show insisted he was dead, and (unlike some characters we could mention) managed to make the story stick for a while. In the books, many believe The Hound is still alive and well and living as a Gravedigger on the Quiet Isle, with his face covered and under a vow of silence. Others think that, like his Mountainous brother in King’s Landing, he did die, but he has been somehow resurrected by the Elder Brother, and is one of the many “Undead” characters who at this point populate the series on the page. I personally ascribed to the former–I think the Elder Brother’s story of “The Hound” dying in his arms was metaphorical, and that what died was his rage and need to fight, and that now he is , much like the Elder Brother, living a repentant quiet life, atoning for his sins.
But it’s interesting that McShane phrases it that he brought the character “back to life.” Does that mean that in fact the other theory is true and both the Hound and The Mountain live as Undead Brothers, who could one day meet again?
Talking at BBC Breakfast, Ian McShane, who was cast in Season 6 last August, revealed some details about his role on Game of Thrones.
If you want to remain completely free of spoilers, then do not watch the video or read anything further, it goes without saying.
Shout out to our readey Wylie who alerted us to the clip. Always support the bottom!
Here is what McShane says: “My character really is like an ex-warrior who’s become a peacenik, so I have a group of peaceful … sort of a cult who … I bring back a much-loved character who everybody thinks is dead.”
We already knew about the second part; Ian McShane said in November: “I am responsible for bringing somebody back that you think you’re never going to see again. I’ll leave it at that.” He was also reportedly seen on set filming scenes with an outlaw band.
With his latest description of the role, we can now more firmly link McShane to the following casting call:
Priest, in his 40’s or 50’s. A gruff ex-soldier who found religion. Now a no-nonsense rural priest who ministers to the poor of the countryside. He’s salt-of-the-earth man who has weathered many battles.
As we have speculated, this would be the show counterpart of Septon Meribald, potentially combined with the Elder Brother of the Quiet Isle. We all know what character the books hint at still being alive connected to that storyline, and we had a Rory McCann sighting earlier. The pieces are all falling together nicely, don’t you think?
