HBO's Game of Thrones has closed out its second season to record numbers. We were hoping the ratings might be so good that HBO would just go ahead and order Seasons 3 & 4 in one fell swoop, but we'll have to be content with just the one for now. We'll be getting 10 more episodes in the spring of 2013, covering some of the events of the third book, A Storm of Swords. However, recent interviews with the showrunners have indicated that as they move forward they plan on adapting A Song of Ice and Fire as a whole, rather than trying to squeeze specific books into specific seasons. This will have the unintended consequence of making it much harder for me to know who needs to be cast for each season. :)
If you've read the books, you know that means we'll be seeing a host of new characters, in addition to the favorites who managed to survive seasons 1 & 2. I've always been a huge fan of casting speculation, so I'm channeling my excitement for season 3 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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Brynden Tully
Brynden is the brother of Hoster Tully, the father of Catelyn (Tully) Stark and Lysa (Tully) Arryn. After a disagreement with his brother in their youth, Brynden was nicknamed Blackfish, and it's stuck ever since. Blackfish actually appears in the first book, and is Robb's main adviser in the second book, but he's been wholly absent from the HBO production to date. Many book fans feared that he would he cut from the show permanently, but he's now been confirmed to appear in Season 3. He's tall and strong, with once-red hair and beard turned grey and bushy eyebrows. He never married, and in the books had spent the last 15 years as the Knight of the Moon in the Vale.
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Billy Connolly
My first memory of Connolly is his portrayal of "Il Duce" in
The Boondock Saints, but he's been in the limelight for years. Originally a folk singer, then a comedian known as "The Big Yin" in Scotland, Connolly is best known by my generation for his acting. He was Professor Johnson in
Timeline, Zebulon Gant in
The Last Samurai, Father Crissman in
The X-Files: I Want To Believe, and reprised his most famous role in
The Boondock Saints II: All Saint's Day.
He's the voice of King Fergus in this summer's
Brave, and he's currently shooting
The Hobbit, where he'll play Dain Ironfoot. Blackfish needs to look old enough to be Michelle Fairley's uncle while not looking silly in armor or wielding a sword. When you're looking for British actors over 60 who can still be physically intimidating, the list is pretty short, and I think Connolly is at the very top. You can believe that he was once a warrior in the same bracket as Barristan the Bold, but you can also believe that he was the Tully children's favorite uncle and confidante. He's not too big for TV, and he should be done with The Hobbit well before he would be needed for GoT.
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Previous GoT S3 Casting Speculation:
Mance Rayder
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