And the newest cast member of ‘Game of Thrones’ is. . .
. . .Max von Sydow, AKA, the Three-Eyed Raven.
Von Sydow is just the latest new addition to Game of Throne‘s upcoming season. You might recognize von Sydow from one of his 100+ roles on film and television, ranging from lending his voice to Ghostbusters II, to Shutter Island, and even the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakes (and his role there is still a big mystery). Now, for something completely different, von Sydow is going to play the all-seeing bird who leads Bran Stark on his journey through Westeros.
The Three-Eyed Raven has been around since the beginning of Game of Thrones, but the bird didn’t become a person until the end of Season 4. Last we saw the Raven, and Bran (and Hodar!) they had just arrived at the mysterious and seemingly mythical tree that Bran had been dreaming of. Once inside the tree’s strange inner cave, the Three-Eyed Raven appeared as a man, and told Bran that he couldn’t help him walk again, but he would fly. And that’s the last we saw of both of them, since Bran got to sit out Season 5, and that means the Raven did, too.
Now the Raven, who was originally played by Struan Rodger, has been re-cast with von Sydow in the role. Just like the other recently announced addition to the cast — Ian McShane — according to Entertainment Weekly it’s not expected that von Sydow will have a lot of screen time, but his role will be “crucial.”
And who KNOWS that kind of role the Raven will even play, since Game of Thrones has caught up to the books and no longer has any source material left. That’s actually why Bran (and HODAR!) didn’t appear in Season 5; there wasn’t any part of his story left to tell. As Game of Thrones showrunner, David Benioff, told Entertainment Weekly, “And [for Season 4] we caught up to the end of Bran’s storyline [in the books]. So if we pushed him forward [for Season 5], then he’s way ahead of where the other characters are.”
Now everyone’s going to push ahead into unwritten Game of Thrones territory. Season 6 is currently shooting right now, with a planned release date sometime in the Spring of 2016. We already can’t wait.
(Image via HBO, Shutterstock)
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