The HBO Schedule has been updated with the season premiere of Game of Thrones, providing a morsel of info. The episode title has not been revealed yet unfortunately, but it does display a running time of 53 minutes, which means that season five will tie season two for the shortest season opener.
The schedule entry includes standard warnings so in this episode we can expect Adult Content, Adult Language, Graphic Violence, and good old Nudity. Sounds like a typical episode of GoT, then.
In other news, several cast members chatted with IGN about where the show is headed now that many characters have run out of book chapters to work with.
Alfie Allen says that his storyline “really is one where nobody knows where it’s going to go,” but that he finds it exciting and terrifying. The actor says, “I try to get it out of David and Dan where it’s going to head, but they’re extremely tight-lipped… it’s more exciting than terrifying… but definitely a bit of both.”
Sophie Turner also finds it exciting, as the show has definitely used up all of Sansa’s story, and we don’t know what’ll be in The Winds of Winter. She says, “And judging by the end of how season 5 ends, I think it’s going to be the most ambiguous thing ever what happens to her.” Intriguing!
“It’s nice to know that now everyone is on the same page,” Carice van Houten tells IGN. “Nobody knows anymore. Like before in the make-up trailer, people would know a little bit more than we did… there were people who knew where it was going. Now everyone is on the same page.”
For more, and to hear what other castmates had to say, check out IGN’s article.
Happy birthday Sophie! (You can drink in Ontario now).
how do we not have another trailer yet?
#Tittywatch2015
soooo short!
thats like 48 min…fuck
I wonder how much of the shows future storylines will be based on what GRRM plans for the next book and how much will be the show creators own stories.
I guess the show creators must be at least trying to make it tie into the next book?
don,
Isn’t 53 minutes pretty much average for the show?
Yivo,
Give or take 3 minutes, they’re all in that range.
They wouldn’t be sitting down to pick his brain on character future paths for days at a time before the writing starts for each season if they weren’t incorporating that into the show.
He’s already told them how everything ends and every year they get more detailed explanations on what he has outlined for the character arcs in the next books.
So you’ll probably not get the scenes exactly how they play out in the books but the general paths and destination should remain on point.
Why doesn’t he just TRY actually sitting down and writing the next book instead of doing constant interviews about the tv show?
Sophie’s being so enigmatic about everything…I really wonder if Sansa’s set to kill LF this season.
King Tommen,
Plus, I suspect D&D get to see whatever Martin HAS written so far for TWOW, so they have at least a few actual scenes from the book to work with.
Why do they never use the full 60 minutes? I mean HBO’s a subscription channel so it shouldn’t matter.
King Tommen,
If Jaime ends up in Dorne in TWoW, I’ll eat your hat.
Winnie,
Yes. I mean, they obviously took a lot of inspiration from the “Mercy” chapter for the Polliver scene in “Two Swords” (killing Lommy’s murderer —Raff/Polliver— while repeating the words he had said to Lommy), at a time when that chapter hadn’t yet been released. They must have access to GRRM’s unfinished writings.
Al Swearengen,
Money.
don,
Season 2’s premiere was 52min 40ish seconds without the previously on, with it it was 55 mins long. Season 5’s will probably be about 56 min long (with the “previously on GoT”), so only 4 mins shorter than season 4’s. It’s not that bad.
Al Swearengen,
I’d prefer tighter episodes. No need to stuff every episode unnecessarily. The Feast/Dance mentality would ruin the show like it did the books.
Also, they have used the full 60 minutes before.
Brian,
I dunno. You should buy a plane ticket to New Mexico and tell him that in person. Good luck.
Renly’s Peach,
What a silly thing to say
It’s not realistic to have HBO shows go to 60 minutes anyways. None of them do so I’m not sure why GOT fans always think this is somehow going to change. There’s “previously on”, “coming up” “next on”clips, and promos HBO has for its other shows at the end of the hour that need to fit within the 60 minutes as well.
People get their noses out of joint about the weirdest things in this fandom.
Luka Nieto,
Money shouldn’t be the issue, this is an editing issue.
It’s season 5, by now people should be used to some episodes being shorter. It’s like that with all of HBO’s shows. Some ‘Sopranos’ episodes ran for less than 45 minutes.
If you believe that Jaime’s not getting back on his book path after he’s done in Dorne this season, then I have lots of hats for you.
The way they get there may contract or expand but they return to the road mapped out by the books soon enough.
I think Alfie’s off: we’re leaving the uncharted portion of his story and reconnecting with the book in Winterfell.
Felt Pelt,
Theon’s arc in Season 3 wasn’t entirely made up; most of it was taken from memories in “ADWD Reek I” and “ADWD Reek II.” Even if that wasn’t the case, the fact is that we already reconnected with his book material in Season 4. Granted, Yara’s assault was made up, but everything else, which basically comes down to the Fall of Moat Cailin, was from the books (ADWD Reek II.) Season 5 will adapt the rest of his ADWD chapters, and just maybe even some from TWOW. Alfie was probably talking about not knowing what’s next after season five, which is where he left it, not after season four.
Yivo,
Why is that silly? We want him to finish the books, right? Then instead of complaining about it on here every day they should go and tell him in person. Sounds reasonable to me.
I think it’s about time for a WotW roundtable to speculate on Season 5. Like a storyline by storyline best guess based on what we know to this point. I would love to hear what the ideas from the staff here are on how Brienne’s, Sansa’s, Winterfell and Stannis’ stuff is going to play out in particular.
Make it happen y’all.
Luka Nieto,
King Tommen,
Personally, I’d like them to wait until we have a second trailer. All storylines north of King’s Landing are such a mystery that there’s simply not much to go on. I know it’s supposed to be speculative, but it’d be great if they had more to base their theories on. So hopefully in the next trailer we’ll find more clues regarding where (or how far) these characters are going —Sansa & Littlefinger, Brienne & Pod, Theon & the Boltons, Stannis & the Night’s Watch.
Felt Pelt,
Speculation is speculation and I don’t have much to back it up, but… he’s not going to die. He just isn’t. Not early in TWOW, anyway. Many ASOIAF theorists seem to agree with me on that.
The runtime of GoT has always been hugely disappointing.
If you take out the recap time, the opening themesong time along with the credits and next episode preview this means the actual runtime on GoT episodes are like on average 45 mins, if that.
Plus D&D want to rush through all the book content and make it a 7 season series.
All this doesn’t add up well IMO.
Rush rush rush… Why?
King Tommen,
🙂
If J makes it to the Riverlands in the show, I’ll gladly eat a hat.
Also, if J makes it out of the Riverlands alive in the books, I’ll be prepared to eat another hat with PB&J.
Renly’s Peach,
What, so complaints about someone online aren’t allowed, you have to make a complaint in person? I’ve got to go to my Governor’s house if I think he’s doing a bad job? Or fly around the world to New Zealand and tell Peter Jackson about his adaptation mistakes during the Hobbit? It’s a silly thing to say.
Arthur,
Because the pacing otherwise would be atrocious. Even now the pacing in some story lines is glacial. Also the last two books aren’t worth adapting, so there’s that.
I’ve always thought of Theon as the “Gollum” of ASOIAF. We’re going on a long journey with a character who has done despicable things but strives to redeem himself and his ambitions/weaknesses will play some (probably fatal) inadvertent role in the end game.
Luka Nieto,
Are there prophecies that reference Theon? Googling shows someone thinks there is in a reference to deaths in front of Weirwood trees. Maybe Yara will secure permission to do the deed or something. On the other hand (before his escape) he says the gods are not done with him.
Yivo,
What’s the point of complaining if the person you’re complaining about never gets the message? Then you’re just shouting angrily at a wall. Not a silly thing to say at all.
King Tommen,
Well, they took down the schedule quick. I can’t see anything past April 4th
Joachim,
Why say anything online then? I mean, it doesn’t serve any meaningful purpose. Why do you bother to post here?
Felt Pelt,
“…Yara could mount a rescue mission, etc…..”
I just coughed up my soup since I laughed so hard. Stop being so funny. We’ve been through this already…Yara is not doing that well with rescue attempts in the show.
It should be 70 minutes really.
Tatters,
Woah. Great idea! How did they not think about that?
So, wanna give them the millions and millions of dollars to make that happen? Oh… oh. I see.
Arthur,
More like 50 mins on average, if not more. The opening and ending credits are ~3 mins long (both of them combined) and the average GoT episode is 53-54 mins. Anyway, I think complaining about runtimes is silly, you could have a 70 mins episode full of filler or an epic 50 mins episode. I would go for the 50 mins episode.
Hodor’s Bastard,
They could retcon it with her just randomly mentioning a fear of dogs.
Yivo,
Grrm got an internet blog with comments actually. Ive been there too.
Luka Nieto,
Yeah, like kickstarter. Surely we will get something.
Tatters,
It’s fairly heavily moderated, by someone that isn’t him. Anything negative won’t get through.
The show is too short. Thats what the people say.
Yivo,
Sometimes a slow pace makes for more intense storyline payoffs.
Also, GoT can use it’s huge cast of characters as an advantage and stagger payoffs so even though several storylines move slow there can always be one coming to a climax or close to it per episode.
The thing about GoT that makes it special is the complexity of the intertwining storylines coupled with the amount of character development. That sheer fact makes for a slower buildup but more intense emotional payoff…
IDK man I always kind of compare TV series payoffs to orgasms. The more foreplay and time you take to build up to the orgasm the more intense and worthwhile that orgasm is. This GoT series has so far been the master of foreplay that has lead to intense payoffs. That’s what makes it different and unique.
So basically this theory of “Things moving to slow to captivate audiences” really holds no relevance IMO.
We aren’t talking about your average Mob Wives audience here…
They should get a part what those videgames earn. Like, launching GoT Minecraft and GoT monopoly.
And start a game of thrones theme park already. Sort of like a disney land type playboy mansion. First mature medieval theme park.
They should finance a GoT direwolf puppet simulator. Sort of like those Nintendogs years ago. But more epic and bloody. It will be a hit in Japan.
I also know that a GoT simcity would be a success. Trying to manage the wall or keeping kings landing clean.
Arthur,
Well, I think any storyline that drags too long just ends up being boring. What you seem to be saying here is that nothing can go on so long that the payoff isn’t worth it, and I’m going to have to disagree there. Bran meeting the three eyed raven wasn’t all that exciting, despite it having been 4 years building up to it, because that storyline had so little payoff along the way that it no longer excited. That’s just me of course. Maybe you love the Bran storyline. You would be wrong, but that’s fine.
Yivo,
I agree with you there.
I love book Bran but TV Bran’s story is boring.
I actually was underwhelmed at Bran’s storyline payoff and pissed that D&D wasted all that CGI budget on that lame scene instead of showing Drogon kill people.
I should caveat what I’m saying about slow paced storylines having a bigger emotional payoff to slow paced storylines done correctly.
ME WANT MOAR TRAILERS AND EPISODE TITLES!!!
I want episode names and a poster!!!!!
I think i heard Kanye West craves a GoT cameo. I dont know how we can make money out of that but we can surely put him on a promotional album? It should be called ‘Bound 2 Throne’? Instead of catch the throne it will all be kanye west singing about these crazy rich people and black brothers being bound to a wall fighting angry white people. It will also feature the first lesbian sex in a GoT music video. Should be kim and dany, while kanye is rapping over them. Then khal drogo comes in and conquers kanye.
Promotion+rap=$?
Arthur,
Bran’s storyline has like, 4 times as much moping around and whining in the books. At least D&D don’t focus on him. But whatever floats your boat.
Yivo,
I think the thing a lot of people fail to realize about book Bran vs TV Bran is while reading the books there is no need for a CGI budget to imagine Bran’s adventures.
I like Bran because I love those Dire Wolves and going into their eyes and things like that. Book Bran is fun for me for those reasons.
But D&D can’t afford all the CGI to make TV Bran’s storyline visually impressive like that so instead you get Hodor carrying around a little crippled boy which does get rather boring after a while.
But my imagination can run wild while reading book Bran’s chapters so because of that reason, for me anyway, I enjoy book Bran very much.
I do love when Bran Wargs in the show, the little they show of it anyway.
Felt Pelt,
Arthur,
Because quality>quantity ,something Martin apparently doesn’t understand and that’s why we are in the this position right now where the show will pass the books . The Red Wedding episode was only 52 minutes yet it was better than a ton of other episodes that lasted longer that season . Martin made ADWD’s page count surpassing ASOS yet the former is regarded as one of the worst and the latter as one of the best books .
Arthur,
Book Bran was way more boring than Tv Bran in my opinion
I felt like his chapters went on forever.
Sure tv show Bran was also boring but they didn’t focus on him nearly as much as they did in the books and thankfully he got to the Three eyed raven way quicker than he did in the books.
if the show was just like Bran’s storyline in the books he would still be in season 5 wondering around looking for the Three eyed raven lol
Arthur,
About the 7 season, you have to consider the uptick in the regular actor’s salary beyond seven seasons. Plus, who knows if some of the actors wants to move on after doing GOT for seven years.
In the books there is no need for CGI budget to imagine dragons.
If you are referring to The Children, all CGI that was used in that scene was the director’s idea, not D&D.
So please stop blaming D&D for everything you don’t like in the show. There is like a thousand other people that work on this great show. Sometimes final product is worse than D&D’s imagination, sometimes is better.
Since the schedule on HBO.com will be reaching the day it premieres, we should be getting an episode title next Sunday.
Jad,
It already has reached the premiere date, that’s how we know how long the ep. is. The schedule doesn’t say the ep.’s name though.
rew,
I personally think GoT is one of the greatest TV shows of all time.
Doesn’t mean I can’t find things to criticize it about.
Also directors choice or not D&D get the last word on all decisions so it was their choice to distribute CGI budget on that episode instead of putting it someplace else.
Listen, I love this show but it’s far from infallible and my opinion is just my opinion.
Sophie’s ambiguous comment makes me think more and more that she is
I can dream!
Don’t know if any of that even qualifies as a spoiler but better safe…
Arthur,
No, they explicitly said that the skeletons were Alex Graves suggestion. And that skeletons weren’t 100% CCI, only parts of legs and arms, and noses.
Obviously they can’t control everything. And Alex Graves can’t control everything. I believe he has many assistants, and his assistants have assistants
When you read the books you have only GRRM’s vision. But in the show you have D6D’s vision of GRRM’s vision. And then directors’s vision of D&D’s vision. And then actors’s vision of the director’s vision, and then…
Kells,
No, I believe she will kill Robin Arryn, and then at the end of the season, LF and Sansa will decide to attack Freys and take Riverlands. I believe this will happen in TWOW/s6.
Tim Plester (Waldo Frey) uploaded this photo 15 hours ago – from a GOT set (obviously an old pic).
rew,
I understand what you are saying and agree It’s a collaborative effort to make a successful show like this and that, like an NFL QB, D&D get to much of the credit and blame for all things GoT when it’s also a huge team effort.
What I’m saying is that D&D do get the final say on all things GoT and have the most influential outcome of this shows success.
This show is D&D’s TV adapted vision of the world and characters in GRRM’s books.
Although I understand many people help D&D create the show, in the end, the responsibility of its success falls solely on their shoulders.
So IMO they should reap all the praises and criticism.
rew,
I’m rather interested in the progression of that Bran/skele-wight scene from paper to film. I remember reading that the scene & episode was in post-prod (CGI work) up to a week or so before broadcast…and that D&D had gone to HBO specifically to get an increase in budget for it. [Someone correct me if I am wrong…the increase in budget could have been for a variety of reasons for that effects-heavy episode]
I guess I am quite interested in what was in the original script for ep10/Bran and what didn’t work for AG that caused him to change it. Obviously, D&D believed in him to get the extra funding for it. Personally, I wish it could have been different/darker but it didn’t disappoint as much as the depiction of BR (3-eyed crow) and the fire-balling CotF later in the scene. So much potential for greatness there but it just seemed like they got tired and sloppy at the end. They crammed a lot in that episode (in all of AG’s episodes, really). I chalk it up to AG being overworked last season (4 episodes). Probably should have brought in another director to relieve his pressure.
I’m really looking forward to the fresh perspectives the 5 S5 directors are bringing to the table.
Yep, that’s what I’m assuming. Last year they updated like clockwork so that’s mostly how we were able to get one episode title every week, a while before the premiere.
It’s still there. You have to actually search for Game of Thrones, and scroll down to the last episodes listed.
After that statement, my money is on Sansa being kidnapped after a violent confrontation in the Vale/Riverlands near the end of the season. But by whom? BwB? Brienne? BF? Frey/Lannister infiltrators? A certain dog? Nymeria? Gendry? House Forrester? Osha? Howland Reed?
And, yes, major TWoW spoilage ahead. Maybe a Sansa preview chapter to be released soon? (fingers-crossed)
I’m saying it would certainly carry more weight. Your online complaining isn’t any more special than the other hundreds of peoples’.
So yes, I’d start buying that plane ticket if I were you. Get it while it’s cheap, before summer. You can knock on his front door, yell “HURRY UP!” and then quickly run away. Then hop on your next flight to New Zealand.
Kells,
Hodor’s Bastard,
Or Sansa somehow gains control of the vale and has all their men behind her and the season ends with her saying and now we get revenge or something ambiguous. Im really tired of her being a victim and the vale needs to join the fight.
Here’s a YouTube video link that’s very fitting for this thread.
Crabber’s Son,
Then again, maybe the kidnapper is not trying to victimize her…but empower her. In any case, I just don’t see Sansa leaving the Vale predictably.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Wouldn’t be a bad time to bring back the GreatJon, considering he is still loose somewhere presumably in the Riverlands.
Dogcheese,
Hodor’s Bastard,
Dogcheese,
I guess I just want to be surprised with Sansa’s situation. There are all these secondary characters running around in the Riverlands…Do something with them! 🙂
I find it somewhat paradoxical that ambiguous comments could make you more certain of something! I would go with: we have little clue what is going to happen for her other than she’s now going to start acting like the Heir to Winterfell.
heh, well, what might be tiring to you or me is not necessarily relevant to GRRM’s game plan!
If the actor had come back, then we would have heard about it. Moreover, the audience has long forgotten him: he was never more than an incidental character and he has not been on the show in 4 years.
At any rate, the Riverlands represents a dead horse. GRRM nearly pulled a Jordan (and I don’t mean Michael) by beating said dead horse even further in Crows. The story lines set there could have been done in other places, and the overall plot could have been pushed quite a bit further along had GRRM done that. Hopefully whatever Winter holds for Sansa will be put into play: and that might stir up the pot a bit. B&W would be wise to avoid GRRM’s mistake, and push keep the same story but set in regions that are going to be important later.
So far we have not seen any intent towards redemption from Theon. (I know that people read that into
Instead, it probably will be more along the lines of rebuilding himself. He probably cannot truly be Theon again, but he could still become someone that Theon might have been. He certainly can still stop being Reek!
lol,
I hadn’t thought of that. Good point.
Make it so!
The average episode of GoT is 55 minutes. So without the intro and credits it would be an average of 52 minutes. That seems fine to me, not sure why everyone is whining.
Rhaegar,
Why is it obviously old? Just askin
Patchy Face,
The link doesn’t work anyways. I imagine it’s part of the same trolling campaign we’ve been suffering through on this particular subject for the past several months.
Greenjones,
Gotcha. Thanks
Greenjones,
Works for me. Shows a guy sitting on top of some old looking stairs. Can’t tell if it’s Plester. Nothing that hints at GoT though.
Wimsey,
1.Firstly, Theon does want to help her independently of escaping Ramsay. That is why he tries to help her even before the escape. Secondly, if he didn’t care about her, why would he have risked it for her?
2.About him truly being Theon again or not, it’s safe to say that he has grown a lot from preReek Theon and that’s what matters. Nobody is ever truly the same after a traumatic or hard experience. But that’s what makes people people. They grow.
The running time should above is the listed time on the schedule, which means it includes the intro/credits, so the episode would only be like 49/50 minutes.
{sigh}
This could work out okay, or could be the start of the fall off a cliff. I say that because, for one, AFFC and ADWD are not great and would be difficult to translate to TV anyway, and two, David and Dan are not as great as some credit them for either. I’m not sold on their writing ability. Everyone credits them as such great writers but seem to forget the major plot points from season 1-4 are part of the best 3 books in this series. So, yes, while adding scenes and changing certain things around in season 1-4, they still did follow the major plot points from the source material.
Now they have to follow an outline from the source material, which means largely make it up themselves. We’ll see how that goes, in terms of pacing, dialogue, story change, transition back and forth, etc. It’s a lot different than some may think. While still having to do that in season 1-4 they at least had the benefit of a 1200 page template on how to do those things. That’s gone now.
Actually, that isn’t true. He is basically
Now, Theon is aware of who fArya really is: but that never seems to mean much to him. The big kick is that he never thinks anything like “I can atone for X, Y or Z.” That is the critical ingredient in a redemption arc.
(Ditto this for Jaime’s arc, which often is labelled “redemptive.” Jaime is never really trying to make up for his past actions: to the contrary, he winds up doing “right” things while trying to show the world that he’s hard enough to do “wrong” things!)
True. Hence my description of Theon becoming someone that he might have become.
Jesterr223456,
I don’t think that is entirely it. I think that it is more that this has some of Hodor’s Bastard‘s favorite stuff from the books, even if it’s not germane to the overarching plots. After all, the stuff we like in a book (or series or film) and the stuff that is important for communicating story, plot or theme in the same book (series or film) need not be one and the same. And Hodor’s Bastard can like anything that appeals to him: there is no fault or shame or anything like that in our tastes.
(Hodor’s Bastard is also a big Blackfish fan: and one of the perils of falling in love with incidental characters is that you often can love them only sporadically!)
That written, I do agree with you (I think) in that this represents a nadir for GRRM as an author. I, myself, pretty much gave up on the series after Crows, to the point that I found I had forgotten many basic things when the HOB series started. People unflatteringly suggested that GRRM had gone the way of Robert Jordan with that book (and I, myself, felt that Crows “jumped the T’vern” or whatever the joke phrase was that people were using in 2005 in reference to Jordan’s once really good but eventually really bad series). I felt that Dragons put GRRM back on track, but I, myself, was one of the people ready to write off SoI&F in 2005.
Jesterr223456,
Because Wimsey is exhausting.
Well, he hated AFFC so he can’t be all bad.