UPDATE: Check out the new teaser trailer for season 2: Game of Thrones Season 2 Teaser Trailer
After last week’s shocking development, Game Of Thrones fans are clamoring for the season one finale this Sunday. While it’s a long wait for the Season 2 premiere next year, filming begins next month, and executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss revealed a few details in a recent interview.
Game Of Thrones has climbed steadily in the rating since its mediocre debut, with last week’ episode winning 2.7 million viewers. HBO renewed Game Of Thrones almost immediately after the premiere, and we can expect the second season to arrive in or around April of next year.
The production will remain a UK affair, with indoor filming in Belfast and exterior scenes shot on location around Northern Ireland. Last year, the crew went to locales like Malta to film scenes in the fictional eastern continent, so expect the same location or a reasonable facsimile for the continuation of Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) storyline.
Click here to check out our Game of Thrones Photo Gallery
While no new cast members have been announced, expect the characters from the current season to return (at least the ones that make it out of the finale alive). The next season is based on the second book of A Song of Ice and Fire, A clash of Kings, and will call for dozens of new parts, large and small. Executive producers Benioff and Weiss gave an interview to the L.A. Times and let loose some tidbits about adapting the second novel for the small screen:
Benioff: …There’s a lot of writing and a lot of casting still. Most series if you get second season you’re done with most of the casting. With the second book and the second season, a whole slew of characters make their appearances.
Weiss: I’m sitting here looking at our casting grid, which is a grid of names and faces of all the characters. …Now I’m looking at the grid again, and half the people are gone because they’ve been massacred wholesale. And now there’s a grid to be filled in again with a new group of people.
With filming beginning so soon, you can expect casting for important Clash of Kings characters like Stannis Baratheon, Balon Greyjoy and Melisandre to be announced or leaked in the next few weeks.
Readers will be happy to know that author George R.R. Martin‘s role as an executive producer is not a mere title. He’s had writing duties of his own, and continues in an oversight role as production on the second season begins. In fact: Martin will be writing an entire episode which portrays the pivotal event that concludes the second book/season.
Benioff: He’s writing an episode for the coming season, which is probably the heaviest, the [spoiler]. Now that we’re on the ground here in Belfast and working with the visual effects team and production team that’s going to create the sets, we have to talk to George about what that looks like. He’s just as involved as in Season 1.
Weiss: …After each episode we get a report card.
The pair also mentioned some of the special effects-heavy events in Season 2, which we’ll omit for spoiler reasons. Benioff and Weiss acknowledged that there are challenges bringing such a large-scale fantasy world to life, especially when it comes to budget, but a continued focus on the various characters of Game Of Thrones has allowed them to pick and choose when and where to use expensive and time-consuming effects.
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Game Of Thrones concludes its first season Sunday night at 9PM.
Follow Michael on Twitter: @MichaelCrider
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, L.A. Times
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Brain…melting….can’t wait for season finale.
I’m guessing the cgi they mention is the [CENSORED].
Dude, that’s a fat spoiler for people who haven’t read the books. The season finale isn’t out yet. Screen Rant redacted those details for a reason, why are you posted them?
Screen Rant please remove the post.
Well, no wonder the show has been so good, if Martin has actually been THAT heavily involved. Cheers, HBO!
He’s not too heavily involved in most of the “making” part, he gives them notes during shooting, sends them suggestions and more notes after he sees each episode, and he writes an episode per season. I’m not saying he’s not really involved, just saying Benioff and Weiss do most of the heavy stuff.
Well, that’s still involved enough to make a difference, I think, he could have been wholly left out, too.
AGREED! Wholeheartedly
DISAGREED! Wholeheartedly.
Lock Martin in a tower til he’s done the series, then let him play with scripts.
Actually, it’s very cool how much he’s involved. It’s lends even more credibility to the whole thing. I just remember that his little note at the end of ‘Crows’ said the next novel was a year away, but was dated something like 2006.
A little worrisome that.
Well, hopefully the success of the series and his own involvement with it will actually motivate Martin to write the last two novels that much faster, a little like how I think the Harry Potter movies actually did motivate J.K. Rowling with her final books to a degree.
Maybe going back to the first book will help him re-discover some of the passion he had for writing the series in the first place.
It can only help, IMO.
Have to agree with Ken, please monitor threads for the show! Some guy on the last thread pretty much gave a summary of all 4 books he read on Wikipedia.
Luckily that guy couldn’t make sense of what he was reading. If it helps, his verbal diarrhea was somewhat distorted.
Hahaha, agreed!!!
So, assuming the cast of the current season get past the finale!? Ok, you murdering S.O.* You killed my man, now you’ll doing it to whole of his family, just chop my head off and let me die with my pals… there’s no justice and honor in real world, and you guys took that from in the Game of Thrones too… For the love of … forget it… just chop my head of with my lord’s Ice.
Caitlyn not acetlyn damn spelled check!
This whole post should be deleted, and people should post “SPOILERS!!!!” at the top of they’re going to bring up something that’s in the books but hasn’t happened in the show yet.
@Ken – We apologize for letting her slip through. She has been dealt with and you won’t be seeing anymore comments from her.
Paul
Thanks, I know Screen Rant tries to be vigilant.
Thank you. Can`t wait till April 2012 for new season.
we all lookin foward to the new season,so can plz someone tell me when is it startin in SA
Has anyone confirmed that Gerard Butler will play Stannis Baratheon? This comes as a surprise, I thought I knew everything he is doing on film at the moment!
Who is cast for Stannis Baratheon?
Randy Couture for the Halfhand. The messed up ear, totally grizzled tough as nails thing! Perfect.
I doubt he has the acting chops or the accent that are required of the job.
Has season 2 started yet? Just watched the season finale…i’ve loved the whole series, the acting is top notch. I personally find Robb Stark’s campaign far more interesting because it involves the Lannisters! And the Night Watch story comes in a close second…the Daenerys (sp) story doesn’t captivate me quite as much just because it seems so “far away” from the other storylines, but i’m sure that will change in season 2.
It will be a long summer/fall/winter till next year! All the best!
Cant Wait For Season 2
A whole year to wait for season 2 – that sucks! Awesome show!!!!
Sad that game of thrones is ended last night, but i love it and can’t wait for season 2….
Absolutely loved the show, Game of Thrones. Can’t wait for Season 2 to begin. Too bad we have to wait so long for it. Don’t want to miss a single episode.
Dying for Ian McShane to get cast. He’d be perfect as Roose Bolton, and probably earn the character a bit more love, rather than solely hate. Also really hoping for Mark Strong as Stannis.
…without Jason Momoa NO need to watch it anymore…
It IS a shame that, interestingly enough, the two actors I think had the most screen presence from the first season (that being, of course, Sean Bean and Jason Momoa) had characters that were killed off… :/
I’m still on board, being a fan of the books, but I’ll be interested to see who they cast for the new characters in order in order to offset that loss.
will “Game Of Thrones” reach asia?
man ~
I can’t wait for the season 2
A bit disappointed that season 2 haven’t been prepared earlier. It’s to long time to wait for next season. Many fans will not come back to the series.
Great, one of the best that ever made:-).
If if any one of you go to Stockholm here is a great free guide.
http://www.stockholmnightlife.se
All the best!
John
I loved the series since the first chapter …
I recorded all the chapters to review when you start to season 2 …
very good the plot …
The LA times had a piece about a particular trend in GOT, ie the over-use of exposed female upper-body anatomy in a way that comes off as completely gratuitous and pandering. In truth, when exposed upper-areas are shown, they all look like they were cast on a couch in Chatsworth for a Vivid flick, rather than being in any way historically accurate or diverse. HBO is a corporate split-personality- exactly 50% garmento quick-buck (1000 churn-em-out p*rn and s*x-related exposes’ for nice profits) and 50% high-minded, beautifully crafted Artistry. When they mix the two, like in “Rome” and “Game of Thrones”, the beauty gets cheapened. BTW, i’m all for ta-tas, wherever/whenever, but there’s something vaguely creepy and very disingenuous about HBO’s use of them, as if they don’t trust their audience will stay with the episodes without a little jolt every 5 minutes.
Have you read any of the books? The use of graphic sexuality & nudity is prevelant throughout the entire set of novels. The HBO representation is fairly tame in comparison.
Well, it’s not supposed to be “historically accurate”, it’s based on a fantasy novel.
that seems a little catty. It’s HBO the kings of stylistic nudity. It fits the genre well. I don”t think that they would go through all of the trouble trying to honor the book only to look like a B rated porno. Roz has a toughness to her that only a medieval whore could best and Danerys goes from a victim to a player for the thrown and her nakedness really captures the vulnerability of a 13 year old betrothed to a 20 something warrior. it works well and sex is always prevalent in any age, so maybe look a little farther into the scene and you might appreciate it for good story building. so what if you catch your boyfriend gawking, he’s only human.
Peace!
I have both watched the show and read the books. I want to say that most of the nudity is not just an HBO add in. Sex is a central theme surrounding Marten’s characters. And the books are very graphic in that aspect. More so than even than the show. Although there is one perticular scene that does seem to have been created by HBO specifically by the pleasures of HBO’s producers. There is a certain homosexual scene between Renly and Loras that simply does not exist in the book. There are hints to the bi-sexuality of these specific characters by Marten, but no chapters go to the extent that HBO does in that scene. After watching a bit of both True Blood and Oz, homosexuality definetly seems to be something that HBO really wants to portray in their shows. A small complaint to an otherwise great show that is very true to the books.
“Mediocre debut”? To whoever wrote that are you high? If anything had a “mediocre debut” it’s that show, Camelot. If fact, maybe mediocre is too nice of word to describe that show.
agreed.
well i hope the next season is not going to be called game of thrones season 2. if anything the series should have been called “A Song of Ice and Fire” with game of thrones as a sub-heading for season 1. hopefully they will call season 2 “A clash of Kings” like the books. i am worried that above it says season 2 based on, bit scetchy that.
I once thought as you do about that subject. Like you I had thought it would be a great idea to call the second season A Clash of Kings. However, while I do think that A song of fire and Ice is more poetic, Game of Thrones would have been just as apt of a title for the whole book series. Besides the final upcoming battle between all of mankind and the True Enemy, the whole of the story revolves around a game of thrones. It is a theme that is spoked outloud or in first person thoughts by many of the characters, through all of the books. Having read more and thought back, I now would personally have no problem calling the second season Game of Thrones Season 2.
I was wondering the same thing. Each season of the show will follow a book in the series so shouldn’t the seasons of the show be titled after their book? Then i got to thinking those who haven’t read the books and just watch the show might get a little confused if each season of the show will be under a different title, also a game of thrones is an ideal title for the whole series since it really sums up what the series is essentially about and really has anyone seen a show that changes its title each season?
I cannot believe they chopped off Sean Beans head, but I suppose it allows the story line to develop and allow better stronger characters to come to the forefront.
I honestly did not expect him to die. Of all the characters, I thought he’d be the one to get away from death.
Believe me ..this is little part of charm that Song of ice and fire have. Valar Morghulis !!
Martin is not shy about killing off characters in the novels.
It was realy awful to see Sean Bean decapitated.
Here goes a suggestion to the producers: make him resuscitate at the end, explaining that the decapitation has never really happened (it was just a trick and the head in exhibition is made of wax).
Read the books. The beauty of reading/watching Songs of Ice and Fire is that you never know who will die next. And many will die, no matter are they strong or weak, good or evil…
hmm… I see.
Well, I like stories where good prevails. A little flaw of mine, hehe.
i agree absolutely but he can still live on as flashback
NEXT YEAR?? D;
Oh, however will I survive waiting for the next season for so long.
I think I’ll just have to watch it again.
(suffering from post-Game of Thrones depression)
*NOTE: I am normally the person who finishes TV shows in days through the internet. I finished GOT (Game Of Thrones) in 4 days. Normally I’d move on to another TV Show, but for some strange reason I’m not over GOT, so yes, it was that good.
I believe I will not be leaving this one behind in a VERY long time.
I liked watching Spartacus , Rome , also Camelot, but Game of thrones was the best I’ve ever seen -in my opinion- I could’nt agree more with what Alpaca said about it , it is realy long time to wait for the 2nd season.
The show was so good, I immediatly started reading the books. Unfortunatly, now I’ve reached the end of book five and am in the same position are you are, yet again. What really sucks is it took Marten FIVE YEARS EACH to write the books 4 and 5. And Marten does not look to be that healthy of a person. What if he has health problems or worse dies before finishing the last two books. Now that is a scarry thought.
Also since each season of the show is based on a book in the series and only five books have been completed, and taking Marten 5 years in between to write the previous two books he will need to seriously pick up the pace of his writing so after season 5 of the show they will have a books to do the final two seasons of the show on.
I hate inconclusive endings.
This means that I won’t be able to sleep until I find out what happens next.
Which means I’m going to have to get off my lazy ass and read the books.