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J.J. Murphy Passes Away


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According to the Belfast Telegraph, veteran Northern Irish actor J.J. Murphy passed away mere days after filming his first scene for season 5 of Game of Thrones. Heretofore an unpublicized member of the cast, the Telegraph reports that Murphy was cast in the role of Ser Denys Mallister, a senior man of the Night’s Watch who in the novels was the commander of the Shadow Tower and a leading candidate to succeed Lord Commander Mormont. The Telegraph notes he was due to film more scenes, and speculates as to whether the role will be removed from the show or if another actor will be cast to fill it.

Murphy, 86 years old at the time of his death, had decades of theatre experience. According to the Telegraph, he was best known for his work at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast, where actors such as Liam Neeson and Ciaran Hinds cut their teeth and learned their craft alongside him. Our condolences to his friends and family.



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I thought what I saw on Variety was amazing.

Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff released the following statement in regards to Murphys passing: We will not be recasting J.J. Murphy. He was a lovely man, and the best Denys Mallister we could have hoped for. And now his watch is ended.

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RIP.



My thoughts and prayers go to his family and friends.





Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff released the following statement in regards to Murphys passing: We will not be recasting J.J. Murphy. He was a lovely man, and the best Denys Mallister we could have hoped for. And now his watch is ended.





:thumbsup: That's a nice way of honoring him posthumously.


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RIP



Loved the note from D&D.



I think, if they shot most of the scenes with him at the choosing, they can easily say he left back to the Shadow Tower off screen and have another character stay behind to represent the role he would have played for the rest of the season.


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RIP

Loved the note from D&D.

I think, if they shot most of the scenes with him at the choosing, they can easily say he left back to the Shadow Tower off screen and have another character stay behind to represent the role he would have played for the rest of the season.

How big of a character is he? I haven't read the books. They aren't recasting him.

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When they say they aren't recasting him, does that mean they're just dropping the role entirely? Omitting it?

I think/hope it means that in four days he managed to film enough of his scenes that they'll keep them.

No book spoilers:

Only three castles are still manned on the Wall; remember that Jon explained this to Tormund. Castle Black is the central one and headquarters. The only other ones they still man at all are the one on the western end (The Shadow Tower) and the one on the eastern end (Eastwatch-By-The-Sea). Eastwatch is the main port of the Night's Watch, because it is directly on the ocean - and on the same side of Westeros as King's Landing, White Harbor, Gulltown, and the Free Cities. So when people take ships to the Wall they arrive at Eastwatch (recall that Tyrion told Janos that a boat was waiting to take him to Eastwatch-By-the-Sea). Although unstated, Stannis's fleet arrived at Eastwatch, before proceeding on land to Castle Black.

The commanders of the Shadow Tower and Eastwatch are polar opposites.

The commander of the Shadow Tower, in the west, is Ser Denys Mallister - a dignified and polite member of an ancient and noble family, House Mallister of Seagard (they guard the small western coast of the Riverlands from ironborn attack and are among the Tullys' loyal vassals).

The commander of Eastwatch is Cotter Pyke - an acknowledged bastard son of an ironborn lord ("Pyke" is the bastard name in the Iron Islands, like "Snow" in the North or "Sand" in Dorne). Pyke is gruff and unpolite, and an ugly man, though he is good at his job. They put Pyke on the EAST coast so he'd never have to face his fellow ironborn and have to deal with conflicting loyalty.

As they said in Season 4...well, Janos remarks to Ser Alliser that they can't keep indefinitely having an Acting Lord Commander (Alliser), and that eventually they'll have to have a "Choosing" (democratic election, every man gets one vote from the rangers down to the cooks and stewards who clean the chamber pots). So now that the wildling threat has been defeated, they have enough breathing space that the Night's Watch is going to reorganize what few men it has left (they lost over a third of their 1,000 men at this point).

So there's an election, and major candidates include Janos, Cotter Pyke, and Ser Denys Mallister.

PLAUSIBLY, he might have filmed all of his scenes already, and they can say he just "returned to the Shadow Tower". He's fairly important...politically, but even in the books he is "off screen" much of the time, off at the Shadow Tower.

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The commander of Eastwatch is Cotter Pyke - an acknowledged bastard son of an ironborn lord ("Pyke" is the bastard name in the Iron Islands, like "Snow" in the North or "Sand" in Dorne). Pyke is gruff and unpolite, and an ugly man, though he is good at his job. They put Pyke on the EAST coast so he'd never have to face his fellow ironborn and have to deal with conflicting loyalty.

Does that mean they have cast Cotter Pyke?

Lot of casting going on we don't hear about.

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Does that mean they have cast Cotter Pyke?

Lot of casting going on we don't hear about.

Presumably they have. If the Mallister / Pyke stuff is in there, and what follows from that, it would not need to be a long role, but I think it would be hard to have one without the other.

I'm sure the producers are frantically trying to figure out a work-around.

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I thought what I saw on Variety was amazing.

Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff released the following statement in regards to Murphys passing: We will not be recasting J.J. Murphy. He was a lovely man, and the best Denys Mallister we could have hoped for. And now his watch is ended.

Lovely way to honor him.

RIP, Mr. Murphy.

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The Dragon Demands answered your question.

It could easily dominate the Night's Watch storyline for half a season, though probably two or three episodes (depends if they skip an episode).

They've got to deal with the fact that there's no clear leader for the Night's Watch given that *most* of the senior officers got killed a the Fist of the First Men. The main candidates are Janos Slynt (playing off the idea that "I was commander of the City Watch in King's Landing!" - though even Jon pointed out that he got fired so he must not have been good at it), Ser Alliser, First Builder Othell Yarwyck, First Steward Bowen Marsh, then Cotter Pyke (garrison commander of Easwatch-by-the-Sea) and Ser Denys Mallister (garrison commander of the Shadow Tower). And they're terrified that Janos will be elected because he's a Lannister lackey....while Janos's campaign slogan is basically that "I'm a Lannister lackey, the Lannisters control the Iron Throne now, you would do well to elect one of their friends." (many are frightened and think this)

But they've got to balance other problems:

  • A political balancing act with King Stannis and his army, the only faction that came to their aid....but overall, the Lannisters are still the ones in control, but the Night's Watch is sworn to be politically neutral.
  • The Boltons are Lannister lackeys and at their doorstep. If they declare for Stannis Ramsay and Roose will attack them and they know it. So there's this long (think season-long) debate and political maneuvering about what the heck to do.
  • How to manage all of the wildlings they captured (pretty much their entire surviving population is camped out, surrendered now that Mance is captured)
  • Dealing with the handful of rogue wildlings who refused to surrender along with Mance and who are picking off their patrols beyond the Wall.
  • The White Walkers and their undead army are starting to get *really really close*. Not quite at the Wall, but they're now encountering wights here and there right near the Wall.
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It could easily dominate the Night's Watch storyline for half a season, though probably two or three episodes (depends if they skip an episode).

They've got to deal with the fact that there's no clear leader for the Night's Watch given that *most* of the senior officers got killed a the Fist of the First Men. The main candidates are Janos Slynt (playing off the idea that "I was commander of the City Watch in King's Landing!" - though even Jon pointed out that he got fired so he must not have been good at it), Ser Alliser, First Builder Othell Yarwyck, First Steward Bowen Marsh, then Cotter Pyke (garrison commander of Easwatch-by-the-Sea) and Ser Denys Mallister (garrison commander of the Shadow Tower). And they're terrified that Janos will be elected because he's a Lannister lackey....while Janos's campaign slogan is basically that "I'm a Lannister lackey, the Lannisters control the Iron Throne now, you would do well to elect one of their friends." (many are frightened and think this)

But they've got to balance other problems:

  • A political balancing act with King Stannis and his army, the only faction that came to their aid....but overall, the Lannisters are still the ones in control, but the Night's Watch is sworn to be politically neutral.
  • The Boltons are Lannister lackeys and at their doorstep. If they declare for Stannis Ramsay and Roose will attack them and they know it. So there's this long (think season-long) debate and political maneuvering about what the heck to do.
  • How to manage all of the wildlings they captured (pretty much their entire surviving population is camped out, surrendered now that Mance is captured)
  • Dealing with the handful of rogue wildlings who refused to surrender along with Mance and who are picking off their patrols beyond the Wall.
  • The White Walkers and their undead army are starting to get *really really close*. Not quite at the Wall, but they're now encountering wights here and there right near the Wall.

I don't see the LC election taking more than two episodes, to be honest. It seems that they have better and more interesting things to move onto.

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How big of a role is this to the story?

Not too big. His presence is required for an important event that may take one episode or two. For all we know, the actor may have finished all the most important scenes he had.

You better not read The Dragon Demands' posts, because they are, in fact, spoilery.

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