Season 5 Casting, News and Speculation V 8 [show spoilers, book spoilers past OP]

[Guard of the Rainking]

I don't agree with the Blackfish being the Hooded Man, but he doesn't really need to own a dragon. He can travel down the Trident, like so many others, and end up at the Quiet Isle. From there its sailing around the Vale to White Harbor and up the White Knife to Winterfell. Even an average ship travels 4x-5x faster than a good day's ride on horseback. The Blackfish can be pretty much anywhere in the story by the end of ADWD if he gets on a ship.

Nah. Time's too much against him. Even a dragon might not be enough to get him to Winterfell in time now that I think about it.

[Steelborn]

I don't agree with the Blackfish being the Hooded Man, but he doesn't really need to own a dragon. He can travel down the Trident, like so many others, and end up at the Quiet Isle. From there its sailing around the Vale to White Harbor and up the White Knife to Winterfell. Even an average ship travels 4x-5x faster than a good day's ride on horseback. The Blackfish can be pretty much anywhere in the story by the end of ADWD if he gets on a ship.

Yeah, but when do the killings start? I don't think he can go from Riverrun to Winterfell in that short period of time, especially considering the current climate.

edit: :ninja:

[Cas Stark]

Patchface on Watchersonthewall said that Gendry, Lancel, Kevan, and Jaqen are in Season 5 and that the merman has been spotted, but I'm not sure if he is a reliable enough source.

I have no idea. Didn't someone say they met the guy who plays Gendry in a bar and he said he's in this season? of course that isn't necessarily true either. I would be SO HAPPY if Manderly was in. So, so happy.

It make sense for Lancel to be in this season, since he needs to confess to the HS and could end up as the champion against the Mountain. Kevan makes some sense too, I guess for continuity's sake so Cersei has someone to talk to other than Ann Boelyn.

[alcasinoroyale]

I have no idea. Didn't someone say they met the guy who plays Gendry in a bar and he said he's in this season? of course that isn't necessarily true either. I would be SO HAPPY if Manderly was in. So, so happy.

It make sense for Lancel to be in this season, since he needs to confess to the HS and could end up as the champion against the Mountain. Kevan makes some sense too, I guess for continuity's sake so Cersei has someone to talk to other than Ann Boelyn.

I'm pretty sure that Lancel and Kevan are in Season 5 and will appear first at Tywin's funeral. TristanSnow's notes and the leaked script from Facebook seem to include them too and most of is turning out to be true.

Gendry is different story because I have no idea where and how he would reappear. The only characters I assume he can take the role of are Hyle Hunt, Osney Kettleback, Harry the Heir, FAegon, or he could just return to the Brotherhood somehow.

[AdmiralKyrd]

Nah. Time's too much against him. Even a dragon might not be enough to get him to Winterfell in time now that I think about it.

Yeah, but when do the killings start? I don't think he can go from Riverrun to Winterfell in that short period of time, especially considering the current climate.

The timeline between AFFC/ADWD is a mess. But if you plot the journey out its 2,000 miles to WF from the Saltpans by sea. Thus, a ship moving at 5 knots makes the journey in a little over two weeks. So from Riverrun to Winterfell would probably be three weeks. The thing with AFFC/ADWD is GRRM starts to go crazy with POV placement, some POV's have chapters get quite far ahead of other POVs, even in their own books, making things a mess. We need TWoW to place anything with reliability to retroactively know when certain events occur relative to others. Since there's so much uncertainty surrounding when Jaime@RR takes place relative to the Northern Storyline, there's no way to figure it as of yet. I think the two hard anchors we have are Jon's letter arriving to Cersei, and Kevan just musing over not hearing from the Boltons in a long time. It's not a whole lot to go on.

[HexMachina]

why do you think that?

Because Little Walder was the only Frey killed in Winterfell, and he was most likely killed by Big Walder.

The other Freys who died in the North became Manderly chow before Winterfell, and

Aenys Freys is killed when he falls into a Pit, not by the Hooded Man.

[Hippocras]

The Hooded Man most likely meets with Roose Bolton after he arrives at Winterfell. He's on his way to the Great Hall and sometime fairly shortly after Theon/HM meet, Roose summons Theon. Roose mentions he's been spotted wandering around, and Lady Dustin asks to Theon's hand (which the HM just saw and would likely have commented on). It's reasonable to assume he's more likely than not part of Team Bolton.

First time I've heard this theory.

[Annara Snow]

I'm pretty sure that Lancel and Kevan are in Season 5 and will appear first at Tywin's funeral. TristanSnow's notes and the leaked script from Facebook seem to include them too and most of is turning out to be true.

Gendry is different story because I have no idea where and how he would reappear. The only characters I assume he can take the role of are Hyle Hunt

Could work, in the sense of tagging along with Brienne and Pod, and minus everything about Hunt's relationship with Brienne... but what would be the point? Their story doesn't need him. The only things Hyle Hunt brought to the book story was his tension-filled dynamic with Brienne and the insight into her background.

, Osney Kettleback

Hell no. I don't even know how that could work.

, Harry the Heir

Hell no, again. I can't see that making sense.

, FAegon

I can't see that making sense, either.

, or he could just return to the Brotherhood somehow.

Which would make sense, if they hadn't rewritten his relationship with the Brotherhood on the show.

[alcasinoroyale]

Could work, in the sense of tagging along with Brienne and Pod, and minus everything about Hunt's relationship with Brienne... but what would be the point? Their story doesn't need him. The only things Hyle Hunt brought to the book story was his tension-filled dynamic with Brienne and the insight into her background.

Hell no. I don't even know how that could work.

Hell no, again. I can't see that making sense.

I can't see that making sense, either.

Which would make sense, if they hadn't rewritten his relationship with the Brotherhood on the show.

Well he obviously isn't going to be Aurane Waters, Blue Bard, Quentyn Martell, or Justin Massey. He could pop up in Varys and Tyrion's story for all we know.

[HexMachina]

If Gendry is back he could continue the catch-all bastard role and do either whatever else Edric might do, or.take Mya's potential future role (though if that is anything to do with Lothor Brune, maybe problematic :p)

Or he could have his very own D&D storyline, who knows.

And of course, this is just assuming he is back.

ETA: I think there was someone speculating he may join the Faith at some point but I can't recall who it was, or where the specupation came.from

[Carne]

I just read some more comments from people who have been extras, and one woman mentions "at least four of us Craster's wives made it to the NDA village."

NDA obviously meaning she can't say the name of it, although I suspect she meant "the wildling village." Either she played one of Craster's wives in season 2/4 and then a wildling in season 5, or they were asked back to be a part of the wives who made it to Hardhome. Which makes sense when I think about it. Could mean we'll get another scene between Jon and Morag.

Also several people talking about dying in boats, which we've seen in the trailer.

[Guard of the Rainking]

Somewhat off topic:

Since we're getting Sunspear this season that leaves Casterly Rock, Highgarden and Storm's End as the only regional capitals we haven't seen. I'm pretty sure that we'll get Casterly Rock, but I'm pretty doubtful about Highgarden and Storm's End being included. I guess we could see Highgarden if Euron attacks it (which I doubt) and Storm's End if Dany lands at the Stormlands.

[AdmiralKyrd]

If Gendry is back he could continue the catch-all bastard role and do either whatever else Edric might do, or.take Mya's potential future role (though if that is anything to do with Lothor Brune, maybe problematic :P)

Or he could have his very own D&D storyline, who knows.

And of course, this is just assuming he is back.

ETA: I think there was someone speculating he may join the Faith at some point but I can't recall who it was, or where the specupation came.from

Head of Ser Robert Strong.

[Colonel Green]

Is anyone else surprised we didn't get more in the way of cast interviews, etc. from the SAG Awards? I realized that it didn't really seem like much came of that, which is unusual when you gather so much of the cast in one place. Not there would likely have been much revealed anyway, mind you.

Sophie was at one of those IMAX screenings with D&D, and did another brief interview with Access Hollywood. Basically just repeating what she's said before -- she loves Arya's story this season, Sansa's story is "action packed", she meets other characters (which we now can pretty much confirm means Brienne and co., at least, though I suppose the people who are convinced she's going to replace Jeyne Poole can let their imaginations run wild). She mentions Lino (Robin Arryn), which I think is the first official indication that he's in this season, but that's not really a spoiler, since it was obvious that he was.

[sati]

Is anyone else surprised we didn't get more in the way of cast interviews, etc. from the SAG Awards? I realized that it didn't really seem like much came of that, which is unusual when you gather so much of the cast in one place. Not there would likely have been much revealed anyway, mind you.

Sophie was at one of those IMAX screenings with D&D, and did another brief interview with Access Hollywood. Basically just repeating what she's said before -- she loves Arya's story this season, Sansa's story is "action packed", she meets other characters (which we now can pretty much confirm means Brienne and co., at least, though I suppose the people who are convinced she's going to replace Jeyne Poole can let their imaginations run wild). She mentions Lino (Robin Arryn), which I think is the first official indication that he's in this season, but that's not really a spoiler, since it was obvious that he was.

Well about SAG awards a bunch of them talked to the press but they didn't mention anything specific, basically just said this season is great and action packed, the usual stuff they say.

[Konradsmith]

We knew Lino was back from his CV a few weeks ago, Colonel. It's good to know he's enthusiastic on set.

Another thing to be gleaned from that interview is that Aidan uncomfortable shooting kissing scenes with Sophie because she's almost the same age as his daughter. Poor guy.

(He was not great in the Wire btw. His American accent was all of the place. I bring this up a lot but he said haitch once instead of aitch. AMERICANS DON'T SAY HAITCH!)

On some of the talk above, Lancel IS BACK. The leaked facebook thingmy turned out to be real, therefore Lancel and Jaqen (and some others) are CONFIRMED (even though, really there was ample evidence to believe they were back before that anyhow).

Cool find, Carne. NDA village seems like the Hardhome-esque shantytownt they're going with, I'll check up on some of the ex-Craster wives' CVs.

[Hippocras]

If Gendry is back he could continue the catch-all bastard role and do either whatever else Edric might do, or.take Mya's potential future role (though if that is anything to do with Lothor Brune, maybe problematic :p)

Or he could have his very own D&D storyline, who knows.

And of course, this is just assuming he is back.

ETA: I think there was someone speculating he may join the Faith at some point but I can't recall who it was, or where the specupation came.from

I have my own theory on where Gendry is headed in the books and IMO it is important (for my theory anyway) for Gendry's path to cross Brienne's in some way, because of the sword. I think his destiny is tied to the swords, and Brienne has Oathkeeper.

For me the best way for the show to reintroduce Gendry is if he is hanging out with his old buddy Hot Pie at the Inn. For a guy without family and not too many friends, it makes sense to me that he might looks for someone he knows, and he knows Hot Pie stayed at the Inn. Brienne could meet him there, if her path takes her after Arya who she just lost, and then into a phase of depression because she failed. Then she sees Gendry...who remids her of Renly. Makes sense to me.

[Someone Somewhere]

About Jaqen, http://tumblrofthrones.tumblr.com/post/109727073278/just-a-couple-months-now-until-more-arya-gets

[Jack Bauer 24]

About Jaqen, http://tumblrofthrones.tumblr.com/post/109727073278/just-a-couple-months-now-until-more-arya-gets

I really hope he returns this season.

[Guard of the Rainking]

The Red God demands it.