HBO will be presenting its hit series “Game of Thrones” at 1:40 p.m. Pacific Time at the San Diego Comic-Con! Based on the bestselling fantasy book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R. R. Martin, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” concluded its 10-episode fourth season in June. The series is executive produced and written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
You can read the archived version of our live blog below:
1:31
ComingSoon.net: Welcome to our live blog of the Game of Thrones panel at the San Diego Comic-Con! The panel should start soon, so stay tuned.
1:32
Comment From Guest
Are there supposed to be casting announcements during the panel?
1:32
Spencer Perry-SHH: We can only hope
1:34
Comment From DaveyNY
Is the room very full?
1:34
Spencer Perry-SHH: I’m not there but I believe it is at capacity
1:38
Comment From SamIN
Among the cast, Who all are expected to attend?
1:39
Spencer Perry-SHH: I believe George R.R. Martin, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and Gwendoline Christie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Natalie Dormer, Kit Harington, Rose Leslie, Rory McCann, Pedro Pascal, Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams will all be in attendance
1:39
Spencer Perry-SHH: At least that’s what was reported previously
1:40
Comment From Roku
I guess emilia clarke is still shooting terminator
1:40
Spencer Perry-SHH: Probably
1:41
Comment From Hunter
Will there be a stream of the panel? If so where would I watch?
1:41
Spencer Perry-SHH: No streams as cameras are a no-no in Hall H, but we’ll be recapping everything 🙂
1:42
Comment From Guest
Is there any chance of a teaser?
1:42
Spencer Perry-SHH: Possibly!
1:43
Comment From Rutiger Smoot
What other panels will you guys do today?
1:43
Spencer Perry-SHH: Marvel Television and 20th Century Fox are the only two we have left today
1:43
Comment From Tobi
No chance of teaser. They haven’t even begun shooting.
1:43
Spencer Perry-SHH: They can always do one without footage….
1:44
Comment From Ellie
What panels will you do tomorrow?
1:44
Spencer Perry-SHH: Warner Bros., Legendary, Marvel Studios,
1:44
Spencer Perry-SHH: A few others I’m forgetting no doubt
1:46
Comment From Guest
TOMORROW WILL BE A SPECIAL DAY 🙂
1:46
Spencer Perry-SHH: Hope so!
1:47
Comment From Shamstr
Has it started yet?
1:47
Spencer Perry-SHH: Seems to be running a bit late
1:47
Spencer Perry-SHH: That’s par for the course in Hall H though
1:48
Joshua Starnes: Eddie Ibrahim is on stage
1:48
Spencer Perry-SHH: (Comic-Con International Director of Programming FYI)
1:50
Joshua Starnes: Which means one thing . . . Winter is Coming
1:50
Joshua Starnes: And we start with a gag reel from Season 4
1:51
Joshua Starnes: Followed by the producers of the show – David and Dan
1:51
Comment From Conrad
where’s the live stream? i want to watch it
1:51
Spencer Perry-SHH: There isn’t one, hence the live blog 🙂
1:51
Joshua Starnes: They’re bringing everyone up on stage where Craig Ferguson should be (scottish flu?)
1:52
Joshua Starnes: First comes Sam Tarly – John Bradley
1:52
Joshua Starnes: Rose Leslie
1:52
ComingSoon.net: Here’s the gag reel! http://youtu.be/v-7Fs9HJvs0
1:52
Joshua Starnes: John Snow – Kit Harrington
1:52
Joshua Starnes: Sophie Turner – taking video of us as we take video of her
1:53
Joshua Starnes: Natalie Dormer, getting the largest applause
1:53
Joshua Starnes: George R.R. Martin, with ubiquitous sailor hat
1:53
ComingSoon.net: Jon Snow, no H. 🙂
1:53
Joshua Starnes: Maisie Williams, getting the loudest applause so far
1:53
Spencer Perry-SHH: You know nothing Josh Starnes
1:53
Joshua Starnes: Rory McCann
1:53
Joshua Starnes: The room is standing room only
1:53
Joshua Starnes: i blame my tiny keyboard 🙂
1:54
ComingSoon.net: They better ask her about meeting with Sam Raimi about playing Ellie in The Last of Us.
1:54
Joshua Starnes: Nicola Coster-Waldau
1:54
Joshua Starnes: Pedro Pascal
1:54
Joshua Starnes: And there’s Craig Ferguson
1:54
Joshua Starnes: No Peter Dinklage — boo
1:55
Joshua Starnes: Gwendoline Christ is here, right next to Nicolai (Nikolai?)
1:56
Joshua Starnes: First question – do the actors ever get to see each other, as far apart as you film? Only in the bar
1:56
Joshua Starnes: Rory is getting it from both ears from Gwendolyn and Maisie
1:57
Joshua Starnes: Question to George — does it look like on screen quite what he imagined?
1:57
Joshua Starnes: ‘More or less but not everything, there was 16 years before the film was a twinkle in anyones eye after I created it and I had very strong feelings of what they would look like’
1:57
Joshua Starnes: ‘But the show is the show and the books are the books . . . a few of the actors have read the books, but many of them don’t’
1:58
Comment From Clement Guest
Can you translate in french please?
1:58
Joshua Starnes: I’m afraid not
1:58
ComingSoon.net: We could do Dutch, but not French 🙂
1:58
Joshua Starnes: 🙂
1:58
Spencer Perry-SHH: And Dothraki
1:58
ComingSoon.net: How do you say thank you in Dothraki?
1:58
Spencer Perry-SHH: You just punch them in the face
1:59
ComingSoon.net: Got it!
1:59
Joshua Starnes: David Benioff and Dan Weis recount how they got the deal to make the show which ended with Martin asking ‘who is John Snow’s real mother’ and they made their guess and he nodded.
2:00
Joshua Starnes: They will be moving production of the next season from Belfast to mainly Croatia and Spain, where parts of other shows have been filmed
2:00
Joshua Starnes: They lost a location this year to a land owner who did not want to be attached to ‘Porn of Thrones’
2:01
Joshua Starnes: Ferguson asks for a show of hands of how many characters are still alive
2:01
Joshua Starnes: Maisie “I just suck up to Dave and Dan and lot’
2:01
Joshua Starnes: George ‘a key lesson for cast members is not to ask for a raise’
2:04
Joshua Starnes: And clip of the new characters joining in Season 5
2:04
Joshua Starnes: More Martell’s are coming with Star Trek’s Alexander Siddig as Doran Martell
2:05
Joshua Starnes: Myrcella Baratheon, and at least three of the Sand Serpents
2:05
Joshua Starnes: And Jonathan Price as High Sparrow
2:05
Joshua Starnes: And some questions form the audience
2:06
Joshua Starnes: and DeObia Oparai as Aero Hotah, also Yazzam is coming
2:06
Joshua Starnes: George ‘my reputation as a killer of characters is overrated’
2:07
Joshua Starnes: Nothing yet
2:07
Joshua Starnes: First question for Kit Harrington (of many, I imagine)
2:07
Joshua Starnes: How does he prepare for his scenes?
2:07
Joshua Starnes: ‘With Thrones a lot of the work is done before you get there, with me a lot of it is the costume; I’m about to go back and start my first day on Monday’
2:08
Joshua Starnes: He is in full John Snow mode here ‘thanks to many hair products’
2:08
Joshua Starnes: Rose: “we were in teh northern part of Iceland for most of seasons 2 and 3, so there was no acting there, it was very cold’
2:09
Joshua Starnes: ‘The show excels at putting us in the places where the characters are ‘
2:10
Joshua Starnes: John: ‘We’re very warm from the neck down, but our face is freezing up and our face is our tool’
2:10
Joshua Starnes: John: ‘You’re thinking, if I’m ever this cold again, something has gone wrong’
2:11
Joshua Starnes: Question on whether the show will surpass the books, will it finish before the last book comes out
2:11
Joshua Starnes: Dan and Dave completely duck it
2:12
Joshua Starnes: We discover David Benioff is very bad at math — 1991 was 23 years ago.
2:13
Joshua Starnes: George: “Naming things in fantasy is very hard. We had the map recently, I’m drawing up maps for places 1000s of miles to the east where the story will never go and I’m running out of names — the Pointy Mountains.’
2:14
Joshua Starnes: Big applause for Pedro and the fact that in real life his face is still in tact
2:14
Joshua Starnes: talks about the training he did with chinese fight teams and the Belfast stunt team on getting ready for his big fight scene
2:15
Joshua Starnes: Craig asks how the rest feel about the action scenes; Gwendolyn: “I’ve always been a bit swordy.’
2:15
Joshua Starnes: They talk about working with the stunt team, and the long hours they put in
2:16
Joshua Starnes: Rory talks about growing up in Glasgow as all the training necessary for action scenes
2:17
Joshua Starnes: Asking Natalie and Sophie if they want to have a sword fight; Sophie: “I want to kill someone”
2:17
ComingSoon.net: Here is the new cast announcement, video and blooper reel: https://www.comingsoon.net/n…
2:17
Joshua Starnes: Natalie talks about her love of the sword fight from Rob Roy, and how fun it was when she saw that moment in Gwendolyn’s fight with Rory
2:18
Joshua Starnes: David: “We totally stole it and you weren’t supposed to tell anyone.’
2:19
Joshua Starnes: not sure yet
2:19
Joshua Starnes: George is talking about where the characters come from: from history, from people he knows, ultimately from within
2:20
Joshua Starnes: George: “I’m different from all the characters, I’ve never been an exiled princess, but there is a connection of humanity’
2:21
Joshua Starnes: George talks about taking much of the inspiration of the plot from history, particularly Scottish History like the (historical) Black Wedding
2:21
Joshua Starnes: Craig: “Good times.”
2:21
Joshua Starnes: Rose and Kit talk about their characters seeing each other again at the battle of the wall
2:22
Joshua Starnes: Rose: ‘I don’t think she realized before hand how much she was in love with him.’
2:23
Joshua Starnes: Weird Hodor comment – lots of guys in Game of Thrones outfits
2:23
Joshua Starnes: Ah Comic Con
2:23
Joshua Starnes: Dave and Dan: Yes there will be more scenes with Stannis, developing his character in season 5
2:24
Joshua Starnes: Now that he’s reached the Wall
2:24
Joshua Starnes: Fan asked George, would he tell people to stop watching the show till the books catch up?
2:25
Joshua Starnes: George: “I encourage everyone to watch the show. I do also encourage everyone to read the books.’
2:26
Joshua Starnes: George reveals that Rob Stark’s would be bride is still alive and will be seen in the prologue of the next book
2:27
Joshua Starnes: Due to the different locations they film in, it is a complicated production process — they have already shot some scenes for season 5 last year due to location
2:28
Joshua Starnes: Pedro: first scene he shot was cell scene with Tyrion, his big scene and it was terrifying
2:29
Joshua Starnes: Many of the death scenes were frequently shot towards the end of their shooting scenes, so they did not have to come back to shoot more
2:30
Joshua Starnes: Rory is asked what was it like to ‘downstairs kick’ gwendolyn
2:30
Joshua Starnes: Rory: ‘A dream come true’
Gwendolyn: ‘Best moment of my life’
2:31
Joshua Starnes: Rory: ‘When she ripped my ear off
Gwendolyn: ‘Second best moment’
Rory: “it kind of tickled’
2:31
Joshua Starnes: Maisie hasn’t talkeed since the beginning
2:31
Joshua Starnes: fan asks about more male nudity – light applause
2:32
Joshua Starnes: Nothing on lady stoneheart
2:32
Joshua Starnes: Nikolaj talked briefly about his first sword trainer, very little else
2:32
Joshua Starnes: Most questions for George
2:32
Joshua Starnes: John offers the male nudity, as with him the boob count would also go up
2:34
Joshua Starnes: Here’s the First Lady Stoneheart question
2:34
Joshua Starnes: They duck.
2:35
Joshua Starnes: Question for Sophie – what’s her journey like from where she started to where she ended up and a step up from the book
2:37
Joshua Starnes: Sophie: Had no plan for her, grew with Sansa as an actress as she grew as a character, but most of it comes with the writing and the scripts. “It was such a relief, for her to finally reveal herself. It was frikkin’ awesome.’
2:37
Joshua Starnes: Question for George, how did Hound/Brienne fight seem to him, being it different from the book
2:38
Joshua Starnes: “They’ve added many scenes not in the books because there were no viewpoint characters there — the scene between Robert and Sersie about their marriage — that were great. The things I mourn is what doesn’t make it. I always say I wish we had 3 more episodes a season.’
2:38
Joshua Starnes: George: ‘And that was a great scene.’
2:39
Joshua Starnes: Asked about fans of the books: about 50/50 here have read versus only watching the show
2:40
Joshua Starnes: I blame the phone I’m typing on 🙂
2:41
Joshua Starnes: Another Sophie question – a lot of Sansa fans here – asking about Sansa’s relationship with Tyrion
2:41
Joshua Starnes: Sophie: “It was devastating. He was my other half! They had this genuinue bond and in the spirit of Game of Thrones they cut that off.’
2:42
Joshua Starnes: Sophie: “I’d like for them to be reunited, they’d be a pretty awesome power couple, like the new Brangelina.”
2:43
Joshua Starnes: Maise gets her first question – big applause
2:43
Joshua Starnes: Asked if she’s still attached to who she is, or is she someone else — Maisie: “She is no one.”
2:45
Joshua Starnes: Question on whether Benjen Stark will ever be found or return – no one answers but Kit: “I hope he does. I havent’ forgotten, but I’ve been busy.’
2:46
Joshua Starnes: Question about the removal of a pivotal Jaime/Tyrion scene form the book
2:47
Joshua Starnes: David’s response is that in the adaptation they lose things because they can’t show what goes on in characters heads — they’re not going to do flashbacks and dialogue takes quite some time — so they have to decide what will and work on screen when they have 540 minutes of screentime
2:47
Joshua Starnes: They’d like to do more episodes per season but they physically can’t — as soon as post production finished on season 4 they started pre-production on Season 5
2:48
Joshua Starnes: Dan: “we can’t do it any faster unless we find some really good divorce lawyers.’
2:49
Joshua Starnes: Originally talked about adaptating Game of Thrones as a series of feature films rather than a series — a la Lord of the Rings
2:49
Joshua Starnes: With each book as one film: “Just imagine what we would have had to cut then.’
2:49
Joshua Starnes: and that brings this panel to an end.
2:50
ComingSoon.net: Thanks Josh and thanks for tuning in everyone!
