The Excitement is Building: Game of Thrones – Season 4 Premiere Date, Previews

Evil incarnate? Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon in Season 4. Image: HBO Promotional Images.

It’s very exciting that HBO finally announced the Season 4 Game of Thrones premiere data is on April 6, 2014. I realize that some of you reading are probably fans of the books and might not even like the TV show, but I love it. (In fact, I just added a countdown timer to the sidebar.)

The set design, costumes, attention detail, and panoramic scope and extras (think: the horde) all bring the books to life in a concrete visceral way. The season of Game of Thrones promises to bring us to new vistas and introduce some intriguing new characters.

Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand, two new characters from the books for Season 4. Image: HBO Promotional Images

There have been many great movies and TV shows about the Middle Ages that all have their own merits. In fact, I was watching the Luc Besson Joan of Arc (The Messenger) the other night: the historical accuracy of the costumes is fantastic! But, nothing I’ve ever seen has come close to making the medieval world as three-dimensional as George RR Martin’s books and TV show — and they’re not even technically about the Middle Ages (they’re fantasy).

Check out the plucked forehead and the gold detail on the henin. Faye Dunaway as Yolande of Aragon in “The Messenger” (1999). Image: (c) Columbia Pictures, Inc.

Anyway, enough of me fawning and gushing. Here’s a bit of GoT news (somewhat older, but just in case you hadn’t heard):

• HBO is releasing a 15-minute featurette “foreshadowing” the upcoming season on February 9th at 8:45 PM EST/PT. Olga wrote a piece about it for Nerdalicious:

• If you haven’t seen it, here’s a link to the HBO trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orL73Y2qmKM

• According to news reports, HBO has cast an actor named Grahame Fox to play the role of “Kenning.” This article speculates “Kenning” refers to the Ironborn raider and captain named Ralf Kenning. Ralf Kenning doesn’t appear until A Dance with Dragons (book 5), but the show doesn’t follow the exact book chronology.

Mark Gattis, who plays Mycroft Holmes in “Sherlock,” will play Tycho Nestoris. Image: BBC promotional images, linked via Wikia.

• This is old news, but because I like it so much, I can’t resist repeating it.  The marvelous Mark Gatiss, the actor and BBC Sherlock showrunner, is going to be playing Tycho Nestoris, a banker from the Iron Bank of Braavos. For those of you who have read the books, Tycho isn’t actually introduced until  A Dance with Dragons.

As for History Behind Game of Thrones, well, we have lots of exciting blog posts planned about Tyrion, Tywin, Margaery, and more for what promises to be a very interesting season.

By Jamie Adair