Casting Game of Thrones - Season 2: Jaqen H'ghar

HBO's Game of Thrones premiered Sunday, April 17th to rave reviews and decent ratings. That combination was enough for the network to officially greenlight a second season. We'll be getting at least 10 more episodes in the spring of 2012, covering the events of the second book, A Clash of Kings.


If you've read the series, you know that means we'll be seeing a host of new characters, in addition to the favorites who managed to survive season 1. I've always been a huge fan of casting speculation, so I'm channeling my excitement for season 2 into a series of posts where I cast the major roles. And don't forget, Sean Bean and Peter Dinklage were the fan favorites to play Ned & Tyrion, so who knows, maybe I'll actually get one right along the way.

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Jaqen H'ghar

Art by Amok

Jaqen is a convicted felon, and by the end of the first season of Game of Thrones he's already been turned over to Yoren to serve in the Night's Watch.  We just haven't met him yet. To recap, Yoren came to King's Landing at about the halfway point of the season and was the first to tell Ned Stark about his wife's capture of Tyrion Lannister. Yoren wasn't in town to deliver mail, he was there to get men for the Night's Watch, and Jaqen is one of his more...interesting acquisitions. He is originally from Lorath, one of the Free Cities, and is described as "slender and fine-featured. Half of his hair is red and the other half is white." - (from Tower of the Hand)

















Michael Sheen

Michael Sheen is a 42 year old Welsh actor who has only recently entered the consciousness of American audiences.  His first major role was Lucian in Underworld (and its sequels). He then played Prime Minister Tony Blair in The Queen, and journalist David Frost in Frost/Nixon.  He entered the Twilight Saga as the vampire Aro in New Moon, voiced the White Rabbit in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and played Castor in Tron: Legacy.

While some will say that he's too big of a name to appear on TV, I'm not so sure. He has yet to have a starring movie role, so I don't think he's really a "movie star".  From looking at IMDB and Wikipedia, he doesn't seem to have any confirmed roles coming up.  Besides, shooting a season of an HBO show is pretty close to shooting a movie in terms of the time commitment, especially if you're not one of the handful of really central characters.  As for his ability to play Jaqen, readers of the book series should note the varied roles he has played in his relatively short term on screen.


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NEXT TIME:  In doing some research for these blog posts, I realized that I hadn't even thought about casting any of the new Night's Watch recruits for S2, so I had to give it a go.  Xaro Xhoan Daxos has, sadly, been bumped to next week.

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PREVIOUS GoT S2 CASTING SPECULATION:
Stannis Baratheon
Melisandre
Edmure Tully
Asha Greyjoy
Davos Seaworth
Margaery Tyrell
Balon Greyjoy
Ygritte