Spoiler country:GoT casting for rugged type, character confirmations,intriguing Coster-Waldau rumor 

Beware! This post will contain confirmation of characters for

season six, spoiler-laden casting info, and a fascinating encounter with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reported by a fan.

is hunting for another character, and the description points toward the filming of a key scene next week.

We’ve gotten our hands on a casting breakdown detailing the role of a rugged pirate in his 30’s. He’s a tough sort with a violent temper. They require “a tall and rugged actor.” This actor has to be able to stand up in a crowd and make himself heard because he’s got a lot of forceful dialogue in one scene with leading cast members. They’re searching for a man with a “sharp mind and machismo.” This character shoots next week in Northern Ireland.

With this description of the actor and scene, I’m guessing the Kingsmoot (or an equivalent scene) is being filmed next week! We should always speculate on other possibilities, but how many scenes are there where a lot of pirates stand around arguing?

If this is the Kingsmoot, the ‘leading cast members’ referred to are most likely Yara and Euron Greyjoy. It makes the sense the show would need to cast disagreeable pirates. I know some will see this description and scream “Victarion!” but I tend to doubt that a one-off character like this appears to be would be a Greyjoy brother. I think he’s just one of the louder pirates taking on a similar role in the meeting- a voice of opposition or aggressive support to one of the candidates.

We heard whispers of this a while back, but waited to share until we had more confirmation from sources.

Since the second huge casting list dropped into our laps, fans have been guessing which characters in the North were those “northern Lords” mentioned. These are the original descriptions:

 The lord is a savage warrior, and he rules a distinguished house in the very far North, and the role is said to be an impactful one. He’s described as a massive bear of a man with a beard and temper to match, and hatred that run deep, and he can be violent. The show’s looking for someone with a powerful physique who can tower over other cast members, a Northern English Accent and specifies he has to be at least 180 cm tall. The role will be on 2 episodes.

Lord of Northern Stronghold: The show’s looking for an actor in his late thirties or forties to play another lord, one that’s ruthless and calculating. The frightening lord rules a vassal household with a castle stronghold. He’ll be in 3 episodes this year, with 20 days of filming this summer and fall.

We can now confirm for our readers that, as many suspected, the savage bear-like Noble lord is Smalljon Umber.  This is a change from the novels, since Smalljon Umber was killed at the Red Wedding in

. Since we never met Smalljon on the show, however, that leaves

free to introduce his character, since the Greatjon disappeared after the first season (and a reported actor-scheduling difficulty for season 2).

The second Northern Lord is the new Lord Karstark. Robb Stark executed the previous Lord Karstark in season 3 for leading the killing of two young hostages. It’s not clear if this new Karstark is connected to the books’ current Karstarks or if the show has developed their own character. There are some shenanigans around the lordship of Karstark in the later novels, and Northern Stronghold lord doesn’t sound in description like a direct match to any one character. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear anything about a first name for this character so there’s something of a mystery there, but he is Lord Karstark.

Yesterday, a friend of WotW reader Michael spotted Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in the bookshop at Belfast International Airport, where he was kind enough to take a photo with her.  They wound up chatting for a while, and he mentioned he was off to film additional scenes for GoT somewhere but wasn’t allowed to say where.

She ended up sitting next to him on her flight to Reykjavik, Iceland.

Since no Iceland filming was reported for this year, the story might be classed an unconfirmed rumor but the Iceland sightings have begun, with this tweet from a local:

I just met Nikolaj Coster aka Jaime Lannister from Game Of Thrones

If the fan report is completely accurate, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is filming

 scenes in Iceland, that is a big surprise. In warmer weather, Iceland was largely used to film the Vale and Riverlands scenes such as the ones for Brienne and Pod, and Arya and the Hound’s travels. They’ve used the country for colder scenes and had intended to film portions of Hardhome with the actors there last year, but the limited daylight forced the show to transfer those scenes back to Northern Ireland.

returned to Iceland? If so…is Jaime Lannister headed to the Riverlands?

Conleth Hill has been spotted around Northern Ireland without his head shaved yet so it doesn’t seem like Varys has been needed yet.

And for those deeply invested in #HairWatch and Kit Harington (#Hairington), he was seen in London today.

(Armies? Doesn’t that sound just a little too organized for a barely reanimated corpse? Honestly.)

The Stoneheart hype train will always roll on though.

Spoiler buttons are functional using shortcode [spoiler] Insert spoiler here [/spoiler] to blur comments. If you do NOT want to be spoiled, click the "Hide" Button before proceeding!

That’s really interesting about the Kingsmoot. So Balon is already dead? And I’m assuming that the new Lord Karstark is allied with the Boltons.

Edit: What a lot of spoilers. Hot damn!! Now THIS is ALL good news!

Edit 2: I swore left and right they wouldn’t do the Kingsmoot. If that is what they’re filming…I was wrong. Kudos to Sean C (I believe it was) and a couple of others who said they would do it.

Wow! Awesome to get some confirmation on the Northern lords!

And after all the theories and thought put into it they turn out to be the first two characters I thought of!! Go figure! XD

That would be interesting. Many of us thought it would be perfect for a Kingsmoot, but if that is being filmed in NI it must be something else. Jaime back in the Riverlands? Some of the beautiful country of Iceland could be used, but it seems odd to not just use NI for the Riverlands… Maybe it is a coincidence and NCW is on a personal visit? Hmmmm….

I’m pretty sure Balon will bite it early this season, like E01 or E02. I always assumed they held of his death because it kicks of the Greyjoy storyline from book 4 and 5 and they weren’t ready to do it.

It’s just a little shame that the burning of the leeches doesn’t hold that much waight in the show due to that.

I wonder if this means that the GreatJon is dead? Will the Karstark be assisting the Boltons or is he slightly more reasonable than his father? Lord Karstonestark confirmed?

I’m hoping Smalljon is tied into the reintroduction of Rickon & Osha.

Having another Karstark intrigues me though because last we saw in the show, that family was not on great terms with rallying behind the Starks.

The leaked scripts of season6 episode 1-2 were true OMG!!!

Mod note: no, they were not. They were confirmed as fake by the same very-best sources. Stop trying to make these “leaked summaries” happen by posting about them under different names. Thanks- Sue.

Smalljon is definitely tied to Rickon and Osha. And I’m thinking that Karstark is with the Boltons.

I gave up to see something like the Kingsmoot but now, it seems like the Greyjoy Storyline will be completly filmed. Cant wait to see Crow’s Eye and maybe we will know more about the actor behind Euron.

The Lady Stoneheart rumors are obviously fake like every year 😀

It seems like Season 5 was to film most of the parts of book 5 and season 6 will cover most of book 4 any paralell, maybe we see some filler scenes that they gave the book 4 people enough time to close up to the storyline.. Cant wait and now we will know that D&D handle the story very well.

Any assembly of northern lords in S6, via conspiracy or overt rebellion, will bring much rejoicing to this bastard. Unfortunately, the showrunners used the episode title

Victarion and Aeron didn’t make the HBO Greyjoy family tree so whatever pirates they cast will not be either of them.

Iceland in September is definitely not “warmer weather”. It’s only about 12 degrees now, and temperatures and light will be falling fast in the next week or so. But if you were to tell me he somehow ends up north of the Wall, with Bronn (who’s been North of the Wall), and Tyrion….well then my mind would be blown!

But will they show his death, I wonder? And will it be a faceless man who does it? And I don’t feel like Balon’s death later than Robb’s or Joffrey’s necessarily negates the power of the burned leeches. After all, it was never specifically stated when each one would die lol.

So glad we’re not recasting Greatjon! The King in the North monologue is still one of the best in show history!

Conleth Hill is wearing a bald-cap if I’m not mistaken, so he doesnt have to shave to play Varys.

It’s just a little shame that the burning of the leeches doesn’t hold that much waight in the show due to that.

How so? I don’t remember there being a time limit. Besides, are you saying that if Stannis had never burned those leeches, Robb and Joffrey would still be alive today?

Some aspects of those “leaked scripts” turning out to be true in absolutely no way means that the leaks were real and not just fan supposition that managed to get some vague details correct.. Go back and look at all the previous seasons’ fake leaked scripts and they often get some bits fairly close to what really happens.

The leeches where burned, so those 3 would die. They did.

I agree. And there needs to be more than just House Umber. The Karstarks will most likely be with the Boltons and the Umbers need allies to take them down. But yeah, I’m just happy that there’s a Northern force to oppose the Boltons in general.

It’s far more likely that the Greatjon has been omitted entirely at this point, I would say, given that the Smalljon is the “Lord of a Northern Noble House”, and the description makes it seem pretty clear he’s the actual ruler, not a castellan or whatever; and given the show’s need to keep cast size to a minimum, I don’t see why they would need two lordly Umber characters.

My guess is that the writers initially thought about bringing back the Greatjon for this role, but either they changed their minds or things didn’t work out with the actor, so they’re bringing his son in instead, and we’ll learn that the Greatjon died (yes, Cogman said he was alive, but that isn’t 100% canon since it wasn’t in the show itself, and may have been because of the aforementioned idea of bringing him back for this story).

Regarding the new Lord Karstark, Roose last season certainly didn’t sound like the Boltons had any major allies amongst the Northern nobles at present. Maybe he’s meant to be an ambiguous figure that the Northern resistance has to sound out (sort of like Manderly when Davos was sent to him)?

I know, I said the same thing. I think you meant to reply to batfan lol.

batfan: I’m pretty sure Balon will bite it early this season, like E01 or E02. I always assumed they held of his death because it kicks of the Greyjoy storyline from book 4 and 5 and they weren’t ready to do it.

Agreed that they wanted to have Balon’s death kick off the Greyjoy storyline, which is the big thing in Season 6, it looks like, now that Stannis is out of the way.

I actually like that the leeches ended up not holding too much weight – it’s so typical that coincidence is often passed off as “magic”. It adds to the dubious nature of Mel’s abilities. Also, Stark and anti-Stark Houses in the North should be good drama.

I think Karstark will take Mandarly’s role. I think he’ll ally with the Starks in the end. (tough he may not, in the very beggining. But he’ll be convinced to fight the Boltons)

I’ll bet my life, that Rickon is with Smalljon.

Maybe they will show Pyke in disarray reacting to his “sudden death”… or could viewers learn of Balon’s death from Yara’s POV? Ravens from the Iron Islands? Or maybe Euron’s raiding party could inform her or the viewers….

Conleth Hill is wearing a bald-cap if I’m not mistaken, so he doesnt have to shave to play Varys.

Really? He was at Comic Con bald, which makes no sense if he’s wearing a cap. I always assumed he and Sophie were the only two who actually changed their epidermis for the show.

Hmmm…I confess that I don’t know much about snowfall timing in Iceland. Would they still have the lovely green areas that were used for the Bloody Gate this time of year, or has snow started falling there already? Will Jaime go directly to a northern location (putting him closer to bumping into Brienne) or will winter be arriving in the Riverlands in earnest? Speculate away, Wallies!

Also, glad that D&D cut that Kingsmoot junk down.

He shaves his head- he’s been seen out in public many times during filming with a shaved head.

Example: this infamous drunkpic of Aidan, McElhatton and Conleth:

It’s nice to get some confirmation about the Northern lords!

That NCW story is so funny. I can’t believe the same girl ended up sitting next to him on the plane :lol3:

We need to get some eyes in NI next week so we can finally find out who is playing Euron. Do we know if they are using Ballintoy Harbour again?

Yeah, Yara will find out one way or another and like in the books, I’m sure that she’ll suspect foul play. Though I have to say, this whole scenario only makes me think even more that Yara will take Victarion’s place and she’ll go to Meereen to seek out Dany.

They don’t film the Wall in Iceland. The Wall is in Northern Ireland. Right now it’s still pretty good weather in Iceland, so it would be Vale/Riverlands/somewhere else, but not a snowy Westeros location.

Check this post from his twitter https://twitter.com/b_cogman/status/446329941031124992

“Keep Watching” – In Cogman we trust! Also he confirmed a few months ago that Maege wasn’t at the RW, so although she’s a small character it certainly seems like he’s got something planned when it comes to making these changes (Especially with no Hag’s Mire on show that we know of)

as green being that Winter has finally come?

In what sense would Yara really be taking Victarion’s place, though? I don’t really see much replacement potential there, even on a plot level, since Dany already has ships, and Yara doesn’t have a dragonhorn, the two most obvious plot tokens Victarion is bringing. And obviously the characters are nothing alike.

If it is not the land beyond the Wall, which it probably isn’t, then it’s going to be near Pjorrsardalur Valley, the Pjorsa River and Pingvellir National Park which is what you saw in season 4. As someone who is familiar with some of these sites and weather in Iceland, this time period right now and over the next 2-3 weeks is 10-15 degrees lower than when filming took place there in the summer of 2013. It’s not freezing cold though. But there is also a lot of rain during this time. So I’d expect it to be the Riverlands actually. Makes sense. It will be rainy, misty, mud filled, damp, and chilly. Not cold. But enough chill to allow for it to look it and to allow for the cold foggy mist to come from the actor/actress mouth when speaking.

Ashara D: Also, glad that D&D cut that Kingsmoot junk down.

I wish that they had cut it completely! The audience will have no problem understanding what Euron represents without it. I do worry that it will be considered unnecessary by the audience, however.

The one silver lining is that at least it probably will not make Yara look like a total buffoon as it did to Asha in the book: after all, that was part of last year’s story.

As for Jaime, that is interesting. Of course, as snow should be falling in a lot of places, this does not narrow the search much at all. More to the point, what will he do? I find it difficult to think that they will bother with the Crows stuff from the Riverlands. However, there might be Winter stuff involving the Riverlands that is relevant to the Winter story. Or it could be that Jaime will be pursuing Ellaria & SS and that they have gone either north or into mountains that will have snow this time of year.

And, of course, there no doubt are several other possibilities I am not considering: including, most probably, what they actually do!

That’s from a year and a half ago, and doesn’t contradict my point: if they couldn’t get the actor back, or for some other reason decided against the earlier idea, they brought his son in as a replacement. The description for the Smalljon seems pretty clear that he’s the lord.

Lisa0527: Iceland in September is definitely not “warmer weather”. It’s only about 12 degrees now, and temperatures and light will be falling fast in the next week or so. But if you were to tell me he somehow ends up north of the Wall, with Bronn (who’s been North of the Wall), and Tyrion….well then my mind would be blown!

By warmer, I mean not the frozen tundra layer of ice people tend to envision when people see the world Iceland. I know it’s not summertime there. But 12 degrees Celsius is, to me as a New Englander, a reasonable temperature- 53 degrees Farenheit. That’s not that cold. And Nikolaj is there right now.

But if you’re in Iceland, let me know if you hear anything. 😀

meets Elder Brother Meribald and we’ll meet again with Sandor..

Maceless Fan: Yara will take Victarion’s place and she’ll go to Meereen to seek out Dany.

Agreed, although it would be a case of taking over a basic plotline: the contribution to the story would probably be a bit different. (In any case, I do not think that there will be an attempt to elevate another Greyjoy to a protagonist.)

But, again, this is where not knowing the story makes it even harder to predict what they might do.

All right! I’m going too write how i imagine Balon’s death, in a rather poorly fashion, as i’m the farthest thing from a writer possible, so forgive me!

*Euron arrives to Pyke. Balon is still alive at this point. They have a conversation,(the place where he talked with theon in S2 should do for now)*

Balon:”why are you back” Euron:”to help you brother, and our family”

Balon:”the only thing you ever cared for is reaving, and raiding”

Euron:”is that not what Ironborn are? Reaving and raping is what we do.”

Euron:” heh. So thats why you attacked the North” Balon:”Yes”

Euron:”The North is cold, and poor. If you want food, you should have taken the Reach”

Balon:”We could not hold the North, even with all their soldiers south. How do you sugest we beat the Tyrrels?”

Euron;”Remenber when i was litle? I used to dream, that i was flying.” Balon:”yes..”

Euron:”And one day, you told me to stop dreaming, that no matter what, we can’t fly”

Euron:”You where wrong, brother. No man knows, whatever he can fly or not, until he dares take the leap”

This has a 1 in in a milion to happen. but speculation is always fun.

Sue, thanks for clarifying the rumor is fake. However, it’s not clear if the fake part is that LSH is leading an army (a preposterous idea from the get-go) or that LSH will appear, period. Which one is it?

Whatever Nikolaj is doing in Iceland, I suspect we’ll see Jamie return to his old bad ass Kingslayer fighting form. The show has made too much of him being practically an invalid and feeling useless. The logical arc is that somehow he gets into a situation, maybe with the SS, where Bronn isn’t able to back him up, that forces him to regain his old form.

Maybe we do. If they’re filming the scene this week, I doubt that the role has yet to be cast. So, McShane is Euron? Not exactly who I had in mind for that part, but I’m sure he’ll be appropriately menacing.

Two possible Game of Thrones returns; plus, explore season 6 locations with this video! ( 304 )

Lost Showrunner Damon Lindelof calls Game of Thrones Season 5 "excellent" ( 238 )

Game of Thrones filmed a season 6 scene recently with 400 extras; Podeswa talks the new season and that fight... ( 218 )

Game of Thrones season 6 filming news: Dean-Charles Chapman back on set, 2 more actors cast, and new pics from ( 212 )

Game of Thrones filming dates and details at Mesa Roldan ( 173 )

Spoiler country: Game of Thrones casting for a rugged type, character confirmations and an intriguing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau rumor

Game of Thrones filming dates and details at Mesa Roldan

New Game of Thrones set photos building a stage in Girona

WotW Awards Season 5: Best Dramatic Scene – Preliminary Round

Game of Thrones filmed a season 6 scene recently with 400 extras; Podeswa talks the new season and that fight...

Ravyn on Spoiler country: Game of Thrones casting for a rugged type, character confirmations and an intriguing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau rumor

R. Strong on Spoiler country: Game of Thrones casting for a rugged type, character confirmations and an intriguing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau rumor

Mihnea on Spoiler country: Game of Thrones casting for a rugged type, character confirmations and an intriguing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau rumor

Wimsey on Spoiler country: Game of Thrones casting for a rugged type, character confirmations and an intriguing Nikolaj Coster-Waldau rumor