The “Game of Thrones” news continues to break. Shortly after learning Ian McShane is joining the sixth season in an, as-of-yet, unspecified role, we now know a two-time Oscar nominee is stepping in to fill a pivotal role in season six of the series.
Max von Sydow, most famous for his roles in his films with Ingmar Bergman — The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries and The Virgin Spring to name a few — as well as the title role in The Exorcist and soon to capture geek attention with his role in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, is reportedly already on set and filming scenes. Entertainment Weekly reports he won’t have an abundance of screen time but his role will be important.
This sounds an awful lot like what was reported about McShane’s role but the major difference is we already know exactly who von Sydow is set to play. In a move not unique to “Game of Thrones” (the Mountain has been recast three times already), the veteran actor will be taking over the role of Three-Eyed Raven, Bran’s (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) teacher.
In the season four finale, the part was performed by Struan Rodger but with Bran set to return after being absent for an entire season, the role of his mentor is bound to be vitally important. The idea of picking up Bran’s story after he has already gone through at least a bit of his greenseer training is exciting and will hopefully allow Bran to be a more active participant in the upcoming season.
Minor speculation but no spoilers to follow…
In addition to the news about von Sydow’s casting, Watchers on the Wall has uncovered another casting notice for a part listed uniquely as “hapless sly son to cruel father”:
This is a very good part in this season who appears in three episodes.
We need a characterful-looking guy – long nose and skeletal features and perhaps a bit sly – to play a son who is unable to live up to the demands of his savage father. We need a really good actor for this part – he has good scenes with lots of the leading cast. The character has a great storyline. There are no options and this is a one-off opportunity for a good clever actor to come and make his mark on this major hit show.
Speculation abounds that this will be the son of the spectacularly cruel Walder Frey (David Bradley), whom we haven’t seen since season three. Most of the speculation hinges on the “skeletal features” mentioned in the character description as that certainly sounds like a Frey. More than likely, as the show is wont to do, this character will combine traits of several book characters.
If this is a son of Walder Frey, there are more than enough to choose from so a combo character makes sense. That being said, Merrett Frey is the closest to the description. Book readers will remember Merrett for being a supremely unlucky fellow and also for a very specific interaction he has with a character that has not and reportedly will not appear on the show (although I refuse to give up all hope).
Even if this character goes by the name Merrett on the show, it is unlikely he will cross paths with this particular character but he will be spending time with main cast members. This could mean Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) would be returning to his book plot line and heading to the Riverlands after the show took him on a disappointing detour to Dorne last season.
As always, we won’t know for sure until the season premiere gets closer but for now this isn’t a bad guess.
What do you think about Max von Sydow joining the cast? Who do you think the “son” will end up being? Will we ever see her on the show?
