After the Walking Dead panel I was expecting the epicness to just keep on rolling. Sadly, the epicness kind of dropped off a bit. With a number of stars pulling out of the presentation and absolutely nothing to show other than a highlight clip of past seasons, the GoT fans had to settle with a few of their favorite stars, and the moderation of the man that created it all. On the stage were Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targeryen), Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), Richard Madden (Rob Stark), executive producer, Carolyn Strauss, and the whole thing was held together by George R.R. Martin, himself.
– I say they brought nothing new but as an extra bonus, after the highlight clip, they added some footage of the new cast members joing season 3. Headlining this were Dame Diana Rigg as The Queen of Thorns, and Mackenzie Crook as Orell. The rest of the new members included Clive Russell as Bryndon “The Blackfish” Tully, Kerry Ingram as Shireen Baratheon, Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Jojen Reed, Ellie Kendirck as Meera Reed, Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion, Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane, and Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully.
– Martin, who seemed almost too comfortable up there, apologized for the absence of the producers as they were preparing to start on season 3. He also apologized for the absence of his 13-year-old colleague “who does the boobies” (an SNL skit). He was somewhere were boobies were needed.
– Martin then joked about the new announcements and the fact that the biggest cast on television just got bigger. He added he’d have to start killing off more characters to make room for the new ones. Someone actually booed. Loud.
– After scolding Alfie Allen for not buying him chocolates for writing him so many sex scenes, Martin asked how he feels about his character. Allen doesn’t consider Theon a villain, and actually doesn’t think a true version of a hero exists in the show.
– Again, after prompted by a sex question (Martin was getting a little creepy), Richard Madden admitted to enjoying the violence scenes more than the sex scenes. Martin scoffed and moved on.
– He moved on to Rose, whom he asked about her growing up in an actual castle. Rose confirmed that she was in fact born at a castle, complete with a dungeon, and that her siblings and her would play games of hide and seek that would last forever. Martin then suggested that they shoot some scenes there and asked whether or not she would inherit the house. When Rose said her older brother would take control when the time comes, Martin suggested killing all her brothers and sisters to take control. Seriously.
– Uncle Creepy moved on to Emilia Clarke and noted she was the only cast member brave enough to return from last year’s Comic Con. She says her life has changed quite a bit since the last panel and told a story about riding in an elevator. The doors opened while she was inside and a woman getting on stopped dead in her track while staring at her and whispered “Khaleesi” as the doors closed between them.
– Martin talks to Carolyn Strauss about the fact that GoT is the only show to film simultaneously in four different countries. This included The Wolf Unit (New Zealand), The Dragon Unit (Croatia), and The Freeze-Your-Ass-Off Unit (Iceland).
– Then we got the strangest exchange of the night when Martin asked Alfie Allen if he died last season. Alfie, thinking Martin was referring to the season finale, kept pretending to be clueless about his fate. Martin, however kept asking the same question over and over until finally revealing that there was a prank pulled on Alfie by the writers where he was actually written out of the show after being killed by Bran Stark. They then asked him if he would mind coming back as a naked zombie with no lines of dialogue. It was the longest punchline ever.
– Martin then took a moment to acknowledge that another cast member was sitting in the audience. Kristian Nairn (Hodor) stood up and waved to the crowd as Martin said he was still learning his one line of dialogue. One giant kick to the nuts, is all it was.
– Back to Rose, whom Martin asked what would happen if here characters from GoT and Downton Abbey switched shows. Rose answered that Gwen (from DA) would die rather quickly.
– When asked if the Dire Wolves were real, Madden says he’d piss himself if they were. The scenes are shot by using a giant silver ball on the end of a long wooden stick. Seems reasonable. Emilia then added that some of the scenes with the dragons had her holding a lime-green sausage.
– She then added that she loved filming the House of the Undying scenes because she finally got to see the Throne. Then she included that the baby she was holding hated her and farted a lot.
– From there, Martin took over everything and simply talked about how he loves the moral controversy the stories cause. He doesn’t purposely include any political or personal stance in the books but loves what people take away from it. His novels are, and always have been’ about the character struggles.
– When asked why he has a turtle on his hat, Martin told the tale of when he was a young boy and lived in a slum that did not allow pets. The only thing he could keep were turtles. He would take them all out of their tanks and place in and around his toy castles and make up elaborate stories of betrayal and power. And then Game of Thrones was born.
– To end the panel Martin surprised everybody with another clip. It was 4 seconds long and said “Game of Thrones: Season 3 – March 2013. People left.