Game of Thrones Season 5 Casting Details and Setting Revealed

In the wake of the game changing finale to the fourth season of HBO’s phenomenal fantasy thriller series, several stories have appeared with hints to the locations and characters to be featured in Game of Thrones Season 5.

BEWARE of spoilers for the fourth season and the fourth and fifth books in the discussion ahead. EW has an interview with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss about the point that season 4 represents in the overall arc of the series and how certain scenes and characters are going to head in new directions.

“After finishing season 3, we were nervous about season 4 -” they told EW, “we’d been looking forward to the Red Wedding for so long that once we shot it, we feared everything beyond that would seem like an anti-climax. We grew less nervous when we outlined season 4, less nervous still when we wrote the episodes, and all nervousness evaporated when we saw the directors’ cuts and knew we had a great season in hand. For season 5, again, the fear started to dissipate when we outlined it and realized how much story we had to tell. Now that we’re nearly finished with the first drafts of each episode, we see no reason why the coming season shouldn’t be the strongest yet.”

Bold claims given the dramatic and action packed season 4 and the tremendous response to it. Benioff and Weiss also discussed a growing concern among fans that the entirety of the show has run so far in between the release of George R. R. Martin’s latest book A Dance with Dragons and the yet to released The Winds of Winter. EW asked if Benioff and Weiss were going to keep running things based off of, but not strictly adhering to Martin’s vision.

“We have talked to George extensively about where he’s going with the books, and will continue to do so. His books are the blueprint for the world we’re building. Ultimately the show needs to work on its own terms, and keep on moving. Our job is to square that necessity with George’s work to the best of our ability.”

At this rate it seems possible that the show may finish before the books, but at least with Martin’s close involvement, each of these creative teams will get to tell their own version of it.

Benioff and Weiss also confirmed what long rumored and logical casting leaks have evidenced, that the southern region of Dorne, home to House Martell, will feature in Season 5. Details from previous EW interviews also tell us that the show will continue to include all of its characters in upcoming season as oppose to devoting Feast of Crows to certain characters and Dance with Dragons to others. Also based on discussions with Martin, Benioff and Weiss say that the end of the series, as they have discussed it, will be “100 percent” satisfying and exciting.

Good to know.

Elsewhere on the net, ScreenCrush has brought us other details of leaked casting call sheets from WinterIsComing.net:

Varamyr: Dubbed Varamyr Sixskins in the book series, the wildling skinchanger initially appears in A Storm of Swords when he takes possession of the late Orell’s eagle, and takes on his scout role as well with Mance Rayder’s army. The book describes Varamyr as a small man, bald and grey-faced with round shoulders. The show is supposedly looking to cast an actor in the 35-45-year-old age range. It’s unclear what position Varamyr will take on in the fifth season as his introduction point in the books has already passed in the show.

Imogen: A 12-year-old blonde girl. It’s speculated that this may actually be the casting call for young Cersei. Given that there is no Imogen in the books, and we’ve heard that Game of Thrones is auditioning girls for the role of young Cersei, this seems likely.

Brunette girl: 12 years old. There’s no additional information about this part. For book-related possibilities, our best guess with regards to the role is probably Melara, a girl involved in young Cersei’s story with the fortuneteller Maggy the Frog.

Not much speculation of my own to add here. Wouldn’t it just be so much simpler if Season 5 could start this coming Sunday? Then we could have all our questions answered! Oh well.

One final social media tidbit. Joe Dempsie, the actor who played the bastard blacksmith Gendry tweeted this little tease….

Still rowin’…#GoT

— Joe Dempsie (@joedempsie) June 18, 2014

Now this is interesting. Fans may remember that last we saw Gendry in Season 3, he was captive of Stannis Baratheon and Melisandre at the Island of Dragonstone. Melisandre had been using him to work her magic in Stannis’s favor in the fight for the Iron Throne and Ser Davos Seaworth took pity on him. He broke the boy out of his cell in the night and sent the boy rowing on his way, presumably back to Kings Landing. Gendry did not appear in Season 4.

This is sure to be only the beginning of a yearlong game of speculation and surveying for info. But it’s what we do as fans of series and we do it happily. Check out the interviews and reports for yourselves below while we celebrate the end of Game of Thrones Season 4 and anticipate Season 5.