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Stannis Baratheon
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| Art by Amok |
Stephen Dillane
Bonus Pic
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| The Baratheon Brothers |
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Season 2 Cast Additions:
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| Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell |
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| Gwendoline Christie as Brienne Tarth |
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| Stephen Dillane as Stannis Baratheon |
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Game of Thrones News: Stephen Dillane is Stannis Baratheon
Casting announcements for Season 2 of Game of Thrones are finally here! These are the actual people HBO has hired to play the parts, not to be confused with the speculation posts I've been doing up to now. I'll start each post with the character description (which may be recycled from a speculation post), and then we'll examine the actor who's been announced. Let's take a look at some of the new players we'll meet in 2012:
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Stannis Baratheon
Stannis is the second of three Baratheon brothers, younger than Robert and older than Renly. For those that believe Robert & Cersei's "children" are illegitimate, Stannis has the best claim to the throne following Robert's death. Stannis has been the Lord of Dragonstone since the Rebellion, and has served for many years as the Master of Ships for the realm. He will probably show up in the opening scene of Season 2, as he is the biggest new player in the game of thrones. He is described as "broad-shouldered and sinewy with leathery skin and a pinched, narrow face. He has only a fringe of black hair remaining around his head and a close-copped beard covering a square jaw. He has dark blue eyes." - (from Tower of the Hand)
Stephen Dillane
OK, Stannis' face will never, ever wear this expression. Other than that, doesn't this guy look pretty much perfect? Dillane is actually a few years older than Mark Addy, but that's not a huge deal, the character has always seemed like the kind of guy who's been 75 on the inside since the day he was born. If you don't recognize him, go get HBO's John Adams. He played Thomas Jefferson, he was awesome, and he was nominated for an Emmy. He was Horatio in the Mel Gibson Hamlet. He played Merlin in the Clive Owen version of King Arthur. He also won a Tony Award for his work in The Real Thing. It would have been awesome to get someone like Christopher Eccleston or Mark Strong to play Stannis, but that was never going to happen. I'm very, very excited about this casting, and if he can be half as good as he was the last time he worked for HBO, we're in for a real treat.
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Stannis Baratheon
Stephen Dillane
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Seems to me like they pick to old actors to play much younger characters.
ReplyDeleteFor example Stephen Dillane is what today? 55 years old?
In the books Robert Baratheon is 35 years old. And Stannis is his *younger* brother.
the Tyrell girl is what...15-16 years old? And Dormer is close to 30.
@TillFall - You're absolutely right that they're aging the characters up a bit. They've said in interviews that the whole process started with a need to age up some of the kids, specifically the girls. It goes back to what you can legally show a minor doing on television, and the question of would you rather have an 18yo playing a 13yo, or would you rather just say the character is now 18?
ReplyDeleteSo, I think in the TV show Robert & Ned are supposed to be 45ish, Dany, Jon, Robb & Margaery are all supposed to be 18-20, etc. That does still make Dillane and Dormer a bit old for the parts they're playing, but once you get past 21 or 22 there's not much difference in 5 or 6 years here or there, especially not once you take make-up and costuming into account.
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