Jump to content

EW Scoop: Ian McShane Joins Cast


Westeros

Recommended Posts

I'm leaning towards him playing Meribald. But with all the secrecy involved, it could be a present day Howland Reed. Someone mentioned Rickard Stark -- that would great if it was so but I doubt it.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've no doubts that his scenes will be great to watch, regardless of who he plays. I've been wanting to see Ian McShane in GoT for a long time now. Now they just need to get Mads Mikkelsen onboard and it'll be perfect. Probably not gonna happen, but still.

 

If they keep their casting on track, burn everything associated with Dorne and never speak of it again, and stick to the book side-stories instead of making up shite ones, I think the next season has a decent chance of climbing out of Tartarus and not sucking Biggus Dickus.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've no doubts that his scenes will be great to watch, regardless of who he plays. I've been wanting to see Ian McShane in GoT for a long time now. Now they just need to get Mads Mikkelsen onboard and it'll be perfect. Probably not gonna happen, but still.
 
If they keep their casting on track, burn everything associated with Dorne and never speak of it again, and stick to the book side-stories instead of making up shite ones, I think the next season has a decent chance of climbing out of Tartarus and not sucking Biggus Dickus.


Mads Mikkelsen would make a great Euron Greyjoy.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tarly seems the obvious choice, doesn't he? That one casting description definitely fits, as has been discussed, and "small role but important to a protagonist" would make sense if, for example, Sam stopped at Horn Hill on the way to Oldtown. Marwyn would be nifty too.

 

Either way, this is great news. He hasn't always been in good stuff, but he's always been good in it.

 

Off-topic, but I was thinking of Meribald and, though he doesn't really fit that role...how the hell has Terrence Stamp not been on this show yet?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm thinking Karstark or Umber since original Umber isn't coming back.

Tarly seems the obvious choice, doesn't he? That one casting description definitely fits, as has been discussed, and "small role but important to a protagonist" would make sense if, for example, Sam stopped at Horn Hill on the way to Oldtown. Marwyn would be nifty too.
 


*sigh*. You're probably right. * sigh*

Would it be too much to ask for him to be The Great Other?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't say the whole season sucked, just that it certainly wasn't the "best reviewed since the first". Don't take my word for it, read Towerofthehand for it's deconstructions of each episode or read the reviews by Rolling Stone or many of the independent reviews online, you'd be blind not to see consensus criticism this year....I'm hardly sitting alone on a deserted island off the coast of westeros.org.


Actually he's got a point. See IMDB's list of highest rated episodes, where it comes a close second to season 4. That's 10s of thousands of people voting. Or take a look at metacritic where season 5 has the joint second highest metacritic score after season 4, and 29/29 positive reviews. Or Rotten Tomatoes, where it comes as joint 2nd best season on the Tomatometer critics score, at an impressive 97% fresh.

Taste is personal and everyone's free to love or hate the season as they see fit, but the broad consensus was clearly extremely positive. The opinions amongst book readers, not so much. The opinion you do see voiced here quite often by some, that it was plainly utterly awful television, do look rather out of place when it's one of the highest rated TV series of all time.

Just for reference, episode 9 received 964 votes here, averaging 6.13/10. On IMDB, with 16,421 votes, it's the 18th best rated tv episode of all time on 9.4/10. So yeah, there's a discrepancy. People who were not already invested in it going in a particular direction loved it a whole lot more that people who were, and that does rather suggest that it's not really the series' qualities as a TV show that causes the dislike.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

how the hell has Terrence Stamp not been on this show yet?


They're saving him up for an amazing scene in season 7 with Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, Ian McKellan, Bill Nighy, John Hurt, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Richard Wilson, Judi Dench, Ralph Feinnes, Derek Jacobi, Idris Elba, Kenneth Brannagh, Kenn Stott, Tilda Swinton, Anthony Hopkins and Imelda Staunton. It's gonna be epic.

There's a lot of talent around and they can't use them all. Terrence Stamp for Leyton Hightower though, that could be interesting.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the reviews and critics are generally showing S5 to be most liked and popular but amongs book readers it is generally seen as fairly poor.
The reason for that is that non readers see it as great TV, which it is, but the actual readers know in the back of their minds that it could have been so much better so they will always be displeased despite the high viewer figures and review percentages.
Doesn't make either side right or wrong, the show is still pretty damned good if you had never read the book. It's the only real decent fantasy show getting star treatment these days and possibly ever. So show only people are right that the show is good.
Readers know the potential that the book content had so we know what we are missing or have views of how it could be done better.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In my opinion most likely to least;

 

Euron: Small role because given the amount they cut already, it could well be just a few scenes from sending victarion off to maybe another near the end of the season - but important because well if they are planning to keep the iron islands in the show this would be pretty significant to leave out.

What they could do, since they've so far dropped Balon's death, is cut the whole thing down and just have Euron show up with a fleet near Dany and take Victarion's role entirely. Probably would cause outcry with book readers for obvious reasons but I'm just trying to think like D&D, and they have a lot to cram in. 

McShanes a perfect fit for this because aside from having a wide range, all the best roles I've seen him in he brings a sort of ill-fit unlikely charisma and intelligence. He can play unconventional or even nasty characters and still make them likeable.

 

Northern Lord: I'm not going to pick one in particular as they've cut so much from the northern conspiracy plot, but I'm thinking Manderly's role mainly with a few thrown in. I love Manderly and I'd love it if he was in, but they could change alot here at this stage. Again, McShane has a knack for making believable "unlikely intelligence" characters, if that makes sense, and to me Manderly's charm in the book was acting the fool in the midst of a very devious plot. He could absolutely pull this off. 

My only problem is I'd want this story to get a bit more screen time, but it would certainly be significant to several protagonists. 

 

JonCon: He's such a great actor I wouldn't complain if this was it. He'd get only a little screen time at the end but he would be strong enough to pull off 'the reveal' if they are going to keep this in. Honestly though I don't think its this, and compared to some of the other options to me this would be a bit of a waste of talent. Still a shout though.

 

Howland Reed: I personally don't think so.. He would obviously have to be adult Howland not flashback, and the only role would be showing up to reveal Jon's parentage. Possible, but isn't that what we are imagining Bran's flashbacks at the Tower of Joy will be? Certainly a strong possibility though.

 

Tarly: He'd nail this, but to me they way they'd worded it suggests plot significance which makes all of the above more likely. Plus I feel like Sam's journey will feature his family more than just one or two scenes.

 

Meribald: I'd feel a bit disappointed if it was this, this is more like a cameo. I hope they leave it in, but I don't think they need a great actor for the role.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're saving him up for an amazing scene in season 7 with Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, Ian McKellan, Bill Nighy, John Hurt, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Jim Broadbent, Michael Gambon, Lindsay Duncan, Richard Wilson, Judi Dench, Ralph Feinnes, Derek Jacobi, Idris Elba, Kenneth Brannagh, Kenn Stott, Tilda Swinton, Anthony Hopkins and Imelda Staunton. It's gonna be epic.

There's a lot of talent around and they can't use them all. Terrence Stamp for Leyton Hightower though, that could be interesting.

Most of those people are a bit too 'famous,' though. Terrence stamp falls pretty nicely into the Jonathan Pryce/Diana Rigg category of success. Ah well, a man can dream.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The first thng I thought when I saw him was "Randyll", but that is obviously caused by my own mental image of that character....

I think the reviews and critics are generally showing S5 to be most liked and popular but amongs book readers it is generally seen as fairly poor.
The reason for that is that non readers see it as great TV, which it is, but the actual readers know in the back of their minds that it could have been so much better so they will always be displeased despite the high viewer figures and review percentages.
Doesn't make either side right or wrong, the show is still pretty damned good if you had never read the book. It's the only real decent fantasy show getting star treatment these days and possibly ever. So show only people are right that the show is good.
Readers know the potential that the book content had so we know what we are missing or have views of how it could be done better.

That´s definitely the huge part. However there are also increasing comments about the things like quality of the dialogue, show´s internal logic and sometimes direction. Some of it is still a part of questionable adaptation, yet people are right that a lot of it can´t compete with other HBO´s shows like Rome, for example (which again, might be flawed in other ways, but still). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not sure who he will play, but he'd be a dead ringer for a much older, hardened version of kit Harrington.

Obviously if D&D were doing something like that with Jon Snow they could use kit and make up, but who knows.

I always wondered if the reason D&D had to answer GRRM about Jon's parentage was because GRRM responded some thing like, " Good that's correct, now if you can tell the story without that piece you can do the show"
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
I didn't say the whole season sucked, just that it certainly wasn't the "best reviewed since the first". Don't take my word for it, read Towerofthehand for it's deconstructions of each episode or read the reviews by Rolling Stone or many of the independent reviews online, you'd be blind not to see consensus criticism this year....I'm hardly sitting alone on a deserted island off the coast of westeros.org.
 
Sound like I'm over myself yet, darling?


Bahaha got em.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually he's got a point. See IMDB's list of highest rated episodes, where it comes a close second to season 4. That's 10s of thousands of people voting. Or take a look at metacritic where season 5 has the joint second highest metacritic score after season 4, and 29/29 positive reviews. Or Rotten Tomatoes, where it comes as joint 2nd best season on the Tomatometer critics score, at an impressive 97% fresh.

Taste is personal and everyone's free to love or hate the season as they see fit, but the broad consensus was clearly extremely positive. The opinions amongst book readers, not so much. The opinion you do see voiced here quite often by some, that it was plainly utterly awful television, do look rather out of place when it's one of the highest rated TV series of all time.

Just for reference, episode 9 received 964 votes here, averaging 6.13/10. On IMDB, with 16,421 votes, it's the 18th best rated tv episode of all time on 9.4/10. So yeah, there's a discrepancy. People who were not already invested in it going in a particular direction loved it a whole lot more that people who were, and that does rather suggest that it's not really the series' qualities as a TV show that causes the dislike.

 

Well said, sir. I don't necessarily agree but am moving on.

 

 

Personally my thoughts for McShane would be:

 

[b]Randall Tarly[/b]

Easily my number one choice as he would absolutely murder this role...imagine Al Swearengen in charge of an army and going medieval on your ass. Enough said.

 

[b]Marwyn[/b]

This really suits him too, he plays strong characters with contempt of authority awfully well and would be great as an archmaester with complete disdain of the Citadel. Might be the small part they alluded too as it's brief yet really important.

 

[b]Elder Brother[/b]

Tough guy former soldier becomes righteous and heals the sick, would be enough just to see him in a scene or two with Sandor Clegane. And you just know with how well Rory McCann played The Hound that they'll aim to bring him back in some regard, I don't think he's done just yet.

 

[b]Gilbert Glover[/b]

Ok I'm totally reaching here as I seriously doubt they'll include much of the Northern Conspiracy but would be worth it to see him in the scenes where he antagonizes the Freys. He's too thin for Manderly and doesn't suit any of the Umbers either, if anyone can think of a better northman that he'd play then by all means let me know.

 

[b]Euron Greyjoy[/b]

I'm only including this option to agree with what was said earlier about Mads Mikkelsen being the perfect choice for this role.

 

Either way I'm really excited to see him on the show, it's been a bit slow news wise compared to last year's Comic Con where they had most of the cast revealed there. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and counting down the days until next April when we can see how things panned out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...