Game of Thrones kicks off its San Diego Comic Con panel by showing just how culturally influential our favorite show is with respect to other shows currently on air. The cast was pretty tight lipped about Season 6 as it’s all very under wraps before filming begins late July. However, it’s still rather clear the cast and crew are very close with one another and even took the time to do a Q&A with the audience.
UPDATE: FULL PANEL IN HD BELOW
Enjoy the full HD 2015 San Diego Comic Con panel via Flicks And The City!
As previously reported, the Pop Culture Mash-Up and Audition Reel that were shown before the Q&A with the cast can still be seen following the links!
And what would Comic Con be without a selfie from the cast?! What are your thoughts from the panel? Let us know below!
Mmmh I think the video is what we get this year instead of the “new actors” video 😀
I’m okay with it, it keeps the suspense but …. nahhh i’m not ok with it :'(
Really don’t think we’re going to get much this year
I don’t need a full casting video, but for God’s sake someone name drop Euron for me. My Iron Island is lonely.
King of the Ashes,
Yeah, as soon as they brought out the auditions video (which was cute, don’t get me wrong), I figured that.
This isn’t streaming live is it?
Agreed.
video is ok, both of them, but we didn’t want that. But fine.
Zeus,
No, sadly.
They don’t allow streaming videos from Comic Con.
Zeus,
No, but there are various liveblogs.
Say what you want, but The Walking Dead is more popular than Game of Thrones.
lanu,
Maybe in USA.
lanu,
No one cares.
Game of Thrones is more popular internationally. TWD is slightly more popular in the states.
Both are huge juggernauts for television shows.
On the plus side, as far as this likely being a low-information panel, that means there’ll most likely be more casting information to discuss individually over the coming months.
The Bastard,
It’s so funny, I was so pissed when they killed of Shane from WD that I quit watching, and he was not a nice guy. But go ahead, kill all my Stark peeps, and I’ll be there every week. Strange.
Darkstar,
Well, TWD got really bad around that time. I am surprised it didn’t lose all of it’s fans during the 2nd and 3rd seasons. Just horrible writing. The actors were all still fantastic. It has sense gotten better since.
lanu,
mau,
mau,
Not even in the USA
Sooo … essentially, I stayed up for nothing? Meh.
Will TWOW post all the videos ? Cause I can’t watch tonight!
Ugh – no casting video.
not interesting at all. Shame
No ‘news’ to make headlines. Interesting.
LOL at Obama meeting David Nutter and demanding to know whether Jon Snow is really dead. He truly is a man of the people.
David Nutter’s response is also classic “Jon Snow is deader than dead.”
mau,
The walking dead is bigger both internationally and US.
Fuck this! seriously no new casting? I was expecting a blooper reel at the very least…
Last year it was probably the most positive ending of the series and they still gave us a lot in the comic con, Now we get the most negative ending of the entire series, and they give us nothing, just to keep us hopeless… oh for fuck sake!
Well as disappointed as I am that no casting video was released I can’t say that I’m surprised…I think the fandom better strap themselves in for the most hush hush and closed mouthed off season for the show since its airing !!
Meh…
lanu,
Sure.
Wasn’t there anything noteworthy to report?
warzy,
I don’t think so.
Is lanu a sock for that one Walking Dead troll we had?
How do you even measure popularity? By ratings? Or by how dedicated the fans are. Because if it’s the latter, I think GoT wins.
More importantly, who cares? If most popular means best, doesn’t that mean Big Bang Theory and NCIS are the best shows.
Are we supposed to be basing our opinions about a show on how popular it is?
lanu,
Now it isn’t now stfu and stop trolling !
i know we dont have it, earlier comic con, not DD, GRRM, and at 2013 comic-con we dont have too a casting for season 4
The ratings might matter if The Walking Dead wasn’t complete schlock. One of the most overrated TV shows I’ve ever seen. It’s been falling apart little by little since the start of Season 2 and shows no signs of getting better.
Anyway, that was not a very interesting panel. No casting news, and I don’t like how tight-lipped everyone was and how pretty much nothing regarding Season 6 was mentioned at all. FTW….WTF may be right: it’s gonna be a loooooooong off season.
lanu,
Definitely not internationally. It’s hard to measure these things, but I’m pretty sure TWD doesn’t have millions watching in just the UK. And here in Scandinavia, everyone gets HBO nordic just for the sake of GoT. A lot of people watch TWD too, but it’s not comparable. Basically, even if GoT is just close to TWD, it’s incredible, because it’s cable. TWD can get ratings by people just lazily tuning in.
My enthusiasm for Season Six couldn’t have been lower. I was hoping for something of a tease here. What we got was: look at how much of an impact we made and look at some short clips of audition tapes of characters that you already knew!
As for the panel itself, good lord.. If that was it, than this panel has literally zero rewatch value. I wouldn’t be surprised if that time Nutter mentioned the Red Wedding wasn’t the only time the audience boo’d.. Good grief. A tight-lipped cast, basically a shut-down of further cinematic endeavors (regarding the IMAX-showing of 4×09/4×10). A question regarding the possibility of a 90m season finale being shut down entirely. The only real interesting question was made by a SJW – and even that got cakewalked by Hill, luckily though.. I didn’t think there was one pleasing answer.. Oh, Olenna is perhaps not coming back in S6, if we can take Dormer’s answer for it: Grandma’s not here to safe her.
Also, Lanu, nice try trolling. Coming into a GoT-site and saying that a different show is better was just a bit too obvious aye?
They’re not really being tight-lipped. They don’t have the scripts yet, so there’s nothing to be said.
1) They don’t feel they have to pump up the hype with fresh news
2) They are going to make the most of all fans not knowing what’s ahead
3) Despite the Nutter comment about Jon, it’s more evidence of Jon returning. If they had no news to offer they could have still made news by having Kit there and talking all about his last season.
LordDavos,
Kit is promoting his new movie Spooks or something like that. Emilia just finished her Terminator tour. I think it’s absolutely good idea, to keep everyone in dark over next season.
Post proof.
Lord almighty I hope casting news comes soon I can’t take this kind of waiting, it’s bad for my heart, hopefully my doctor will understand why I need a massive Xanax prescription.
Waiting for books, seasons, casting news. First world problemzzzzzzzz.
Nice try? That’s being incredibly generous, but hey, they got a couple of responses, so they feel like they accomplished something. Man, it must be a really sad sort of life to live…sort of like that really angry troll who keeps getting banned and keeps coming back with a new SN bragging about how the ban did no good.
Anywho, like many others, I suspected there may be no casting news, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t hopeful, so now I’m a bit disappointed.
It’s definitely the casting news that I really wanted. I’m still dying to know who Euron and Randyll will be played by. Hopefully someone will get the scoop on it soon.
lanu,
Not that anybody here really cares about that kind of stuff, but no it really isn’t. Game of Thrones holds the illegal downloads record for years now. Popularity isn’t easy to define, but in a nutshell it describes the amount of attraction something has toward people. Illegal downloads are a very good indicator for that, unlike viewer numbers on basic cable. Many people might very well just watch TWD because it is on, they don’t get out of their way to get it, illegally or legally.
mau,
True.
No casting announcements? wtf
Yep. In past seasons, they knew books existed, and many book readers took particular delight in “dropping hints” all over the place for the vast majority of viewers who have not read the books. So they themselves were much more relaxed about dropping spoilers. Now the situation is much different. No “spoilers” for anyone, and D&D are savoring the feeling of knowing that they can control news leakage much better.
I disagree that it’s more evidence at all. Especially Jon returning as a full-fledged cast member in Season 6, and business as usual. In any case, we’ll find out next April. 🙂
Nymeria Warrior Queen,
Well it’s not my fault that this site’s security is garbage and you can literally make a million accounts that easily,that’s the admins of this site being morons not anyone else . Speaking of no life,there was no way of knowing that without you being someone who likely spends 24/7 on this site,i only come ,i say what i want to say and then leave,i don’t spend as much time on this site as your lonely ass that’s for sure but thanks for the great example of irony .
the worst episode of GOT is much better than the best episode of TWD. And Got is far more popular an watched.
theres no need to feed this troll.
They’re didn’t even speculate about what’s in store for them. Heck, Natalie Dormer only said that she wasn’t in a good place when we left her and would need a shower and a coffee.. She’s in jail for at least one of the things that Cersei did, so she could expect a trial – just like Cersei is going to get. Nope, just a witty response about taking a shower and needing a coffee. -.-
Same with the Executive producer and David Nutter. I mean, she wouldn’t even answer a question about the possibility of a 90m season finale. They would know that by now, a yes or no would’ve sufficed, but she left it in the grey area on purpose. I can’t blame Nutter for not delving into S6, because he’s not on S6, but he could’ve gone into some of the cues he may have gotten for the last episode, which he didn’t. Just a quick quip at the President.. It would’ve been a better joke if he just said: “Well, I told him, “you know nothing.. President Snowbama”.. “Deader than dead”.. I guess the President laughed real hard about that one.. As for what is probably going to be the hardest part, Maisie just retold her MTV-interview answer that the contacts are hard to wear..
Holy underwhelming, Batman. 🙁
Carcosa101,
How about you skip all the other parts and just leave, buddy? 😉
Guys, watch this new season 6 trailer for The walking dead, is AMAZING!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgX1geb4FlA
I’m a big fan of both Game of Thrones and Walking Dead, but it seems that walking dead will blow GOT out of the water in season 6.
Hate to say I told you so about the (lack of) casting news, but…
D&D seem to definitely be behind schedule so far this season when it comes to production. I know that ComicCon is earlier this year than it typically has been, but there usually has been more noise on that front at this point in the year than there is now. The fact that NONE of the cast have received their scripts is more than a bit troubling. It seems as if the writing process is taking more time than usual to complete this year- which is only natural, given the lack of existing source material. Don’t hate me for saying this, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Season 6 ends up being delayed until either the summer or even fall of 2016.
When they announced casting in S4?
Any news of the 2016 ASOIAF calendar that was supposed to be released at Comic-Con? It supposedly had a piece of TWOW artwork. Any word of whether this is a depiction of a sample chapter or something new?
igorcarvalho,
Episode 10 of last season was way worse then several of the good episodes of The Walking Dead last season, and I don’t even like the Walking dead.
goku22,
twd will never be better than got. wake up.
lanu,
Then why are you here?
Seth Meyers did a FANTASTIC job teasing out nuggets from the panel.
D&D controlling leakage, yeah, like past season.. Good lord.. Episode 1-4 were dropped before the season started and episodes (6?)7-9 had their entire summaries dropped before the episode aired, not to mention the “Inside the Episode”-segments leaking before quite a few episodes. The entire previous season had been a leakage-fest like no other. No wonder they want to remain tight-lipped this season, but I doubt they’ll succeed.
As for finding out in April, you got to be kidding.. We’ll have cast sightings before that.
If you count the ratings and torrent downloads GoT beats TWD both in the US and internationally by miles and miles and miles. It’s not even close.
Also, I have never actually met someone who watches TWD (or at least nobody who likes it enough to bring it up during a TV related conversation). Almost everyone I know watches GoT.
At hearing the panel was so “meh”, I’m glad I didn’t drive 5 hours from Vegas to go to Comic Con.
The Jon Snow “Who Shot J.R.” phenomenon gives us reasons to surf the ‘net. I’m happy with that.
Ever think of the fact that Benioff, Weiss and GRRM are sitting back in their seats going:
“You know nothing GoT fans…”
Carcosa101,
Not even a creative troll.
Alas.
I don’t know if TWD is more popular than GOT, but for sure TWD is more known than GOT. It is a difference between being popular and known. TWD is for sure more known world-wide.
roy,
It is known.
(Sorry)
Where did all of you see the panel speak? I was trying to remain cool, thinking there was video somewhere on the site, other than the two at the top of the remarks, but I can’t find it. Where did everyone get their info on who said what?
seems like we are inundated by Walking Dead people here. Don’t they have their own forums to salivate into?
RBloodworth,
Not this shit again man. THERE IS NO SUCH A THING AS LACK OF SOURCE MATERIAL THIS SEASON. TWOW is almost finished, anyway not far form it and TWOW will be THE BIGGEST ASOIAF BOOK to date with over 1500 pages. So they have more than enough material for season 6 already.
I absolutely love the audition tapes…
#2 thing I like best during offseason.
#1 being the new cast videos… This thing gets me hype like nothing else.
Sad we’re probably not getting one.
The walking dead trailer was indeed brilliant. After the disaster season 5 of game of thrones was I’m actually more excited for TWD season 6.
roy,
Bull.
Kay
we can only hope 🙂 I think the ‘deader than dead’ line is evidence of D&D media coaching.
I’m not one who goes into the whole discussion about the state of the future books all that much, but that’s absurd. The next book will be almost finished when GRRM’s publisher has the full manuscript, not an outline like D&D most likely have for season 6.
That was even lamer than expected, as far as I can tell from anything posted here or twitter. and yet I will count down the minutes to Conan even knowing it will be just as worthless. Maybe someone will at least say something amusing.
Re: The ongoing TWD Vs GOT debate
I have a hard time believing TWD is more popular than GOT in any meaningful amount… I have not read any evidence of that anywhere and I like both shows.
What I have read:
– TWD airs in 120 or so countries worldwide.
– GoT airs in 170 or so countries worldwide.
– Game of Thrones is consistently the most pirated show every year with less episodes than TWD.
I’m not sure about DVD sales overall, but each year I read about Game of Thrones setting a new record in the US or the UK or elsewhere.
I personally hear more references to GOT on TV shows I watch, but I think both are cultural phenomenons discussed around water coolers everywhere….
I would place my money on GOT being more popular worldwide, but maybe not by a huge margin. Both are huge hits in their own right and deserve their praise.
Sad that this debate is more entertaining than the Comic-Con panel this year… Sigh.
Abyss,
I … um … stand corrected. Apologies to everyone. I mean, to a hell of a lot of people. Gonna have to reflect on this a bit and what it means to me as a participant in this fucked up fandom. But The Word has come down from on high.
Next ASOIAF book is out in October.
I thought everyone knew that was the wrong question.
The correct question is:
“Does Jon Snow stay dead?”
First glimpse of Maisie in Doctor Who. 🙂
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/559ff970e4b05b1d029037c4?
No casting news?
Boojam
Exactly. They are being overly definite and using similar lines about Snow’s death while ignoring the fact that in GRRM’s world death is not always the end. Or when the other possibilities are addressed, they are made light of.
Not sure why people had their expectations for the panels. The GoT panels have been boring in the past. The people they cast are great actors but boring for Comic Con sort of stuff.
Cumsprite,
I have to admit that if that’s true it’s way earlier than I assumed, but I can’t find anything official on it. As far as I can see it’s only a rumor for now.
Abyss,
The Truth is on the NAB. Go now, Abyss, and step into The Light.
the “new ASOIAF book” scheduled for release in October is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is a compilation of the Dunk & Egg novellas. Not TWOW.
Busted.
Cumsprite,
If NAB is not a blog then I’m still in the dark, nothing on there. – I think playing with my feelings. 😉
Eddit: Thought as much…
What’s the usual wait time between a comic con panel and the full upload? Could it come out within the next 2 hours? Just trying to work out if I should bother staying up much longer.
Well I’ll wait for the video but my friend who was there and has been to all of the Game of Thrones panels over the years texted me this was the worst one of them all. Some people didn’t stay until the end. He himself told me he was bored with it and left extremely disappointed.
Based on a quick skim of the comments people aren’t happy! That makes me sad. I’ll watch the videos later
The upside is perhaps they are still trying to negotiate deals and lock down actors. Which could mean there’s still hope of seeing Mads Mikkelsen play Euron.
I heard that the Hannibal cast have just been released from their contracts. Hopefully that frees up Mads to take the role.
My heart is still set on James Purefoy but I wouldn’t object to Mads.
Al Swearengen,
I’d rather see more Hannibal than Mads as Euron.
My sister was there and she was tremendously disappointed with it and the cast. They didn’t know anything about season 6 so they couldn’t say anything about that, so that was understandable, what disappointed her was they didn’t say much about season 5 either. They seem disinterested and forced to be there. The executive producer she said was the worst. She answered nothing and gave like one or two word answers and seemed agitated at questions about the production and future production of the show. So what was she there for then?
My sister left so agitated she said she doesn’t plan on going back to the Game of Thrones panels in the future. That is probably the heat of the moment and I don’t believe her on that, but she was upset by it. She also mentioned like others have, people left before it was over and many seemed confused and dumbfounded at how disinterested the cast was and how many quick one sentence answers were given.
Greg,
As would I, but alas it seems the odds are no longer in Hannibal’s favor now that Netflix and Amazon passed on Season 4 🙁
Oh Jon Snow is dead… we know that
but
he always comes back!!
‘Emergency Awesome’ on Youtube has uploaded (a not so great quality) part one, which you could use to get an idea for what the panel/conversation is going to be like. Personally I’m quite liking it so far. Based on the comments here, I expected it to be awful from the get go.
Seems this site is getting raided by an army of dumbasses…
It is a bit of a shame that it sounds like the panel might have been a bit disappointing for some people. Perhaps there should have been more of the top favorite characters. That might have distracted the audience to some degree, from the fact that there is no information about season 6. Or they should have added more hot guys, that might also have worked. 🙂
Perhaps it is just me but they seem a bit over the top when it comes to being insensitive about Jon’s death. This is properly due to the fact that he is coming back. But just imagine if he actually wasn’t returning, their handling of the situation would have been really intensive for such a popular character.
They just keep on saying that Jon is deader then dead, they dont discuss their feelings about the situation and they dont even discuss the character. When you look back at the Red Wedding or Ned’s execution, everyone discussed their feelings in the moment, the characters and their emotions and actions where discussed. Even with Stannis in this situation, David Nutter reveals that he has lost everything and that he does not have anything left to live for. and that it would be too gratuitous to show him die in a bloody manner at that stage.
But when it comes to Jon they just repeat that he is deader then dead. That is pretty cold and insensitive behavior towards a character who has been there since the start.
I love Hannibal to bits, but I’m not surprised by its cancellation. The show is a wee bit too highbrow for the average network TV viewer. It’s amazing the show lasted as long as it did given the ratings of previous seasons and NBC’s propensity for cancellation.
Mads Mikkelsen as Euron would be the sole silver lining out of that for some people (though I still can’t quite see it myself).
Fewer.
(Sorry, couldn’t resist!)
As to the “debate”, it’s quite a joke. Here in Brazil, people have heard of tWD, but people *watch* GoT. In terms of popularity, it’s not even close. In terms of quality, I can’t answer, because I’ve never watched tWD. 😉
The amount of info we got from it was particularly aweful, if you like the mood of the panel, than sure, it could be likable..
As for Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, that’s quite lame.. The three Dunk and Egg stories bunched in one novella? We already have an official combined version of all three in the Netherlands.. and it’s quite hard to get even get them separately these days. Didn’t know it did not yet exist in English though.. That’s pretty weird.
I’m curious how many of them share the same IP address…
Simeon,
Ha!
Indeed…
I’m not surprised by what you tell me about Brazil…
Regardless of who sells more or has more downloads or whatever metric one uses, they are two of the most popular shows in the world. I’m okay with that! XD
Quality wise, even for those who have seen both shows, it can be hard to compare the two… At least it is for me. They are so very different. GoT is epic in nature and moves quickly (too quickly I think) and TWD moves slowly and is very intimate. Personally I think both are good at what they attempt to do and what they manage to accomplish over all, but each has minor flaws and of course some seasons are better than others.
Abyss,
How about no ? 🙂
mary,
Yawn,no one cares,move along. Also i bet you’re the same guy before you,your sister/friend being there and so and so is so lazy,and so overdone that no one believes it anymore . Did any of you idiotic morons actually thought they would reveal stuff from the next season,like how dumbfoundly retarded do you have to be to believe that ?
Ser Oromis Locke,
What info did you expect from it you imbecile,like did your dumb ass really think they were going to go like”Hey guys J
Ser Oromis Locke,
What info did you expect from it you imbecile,like did your dumb ass really think they were going to go like”Hey guys Jon is totally going to be ressurected next season oh and also Dany will be invading Westeros,see ya,bye”?
TWD may be better than GoT for all I know, though I’d rather doubt it. I’ve never watched it, and neither has anyone else I know. It would be an exaggeration to say that literally everyone I know watches GoT, but not much of one. My 73-year-old parents watch it, my slightly older aunt and uncle watch it, my fortysomething friends all do, my twentysomething friends all do. A debate over which of the two shows is more popular sets new standards for stupid.
I’m kinda surprised that so many people here have had a negative reaction of the panel. This has always seemed to me to be probably the most show friendly website out there. Maybe the producers did make a bit of a miscalculation going with the cliffhanger/keep everything secret strategy this year.
For myself, it doesn’t really bother me much. Seems like these panels are an opportunity for the cast to hang out together, have a good time and get some non in-character time before the fans. Any info would just be bonus. But I can see how some could be disappointed. I’m not sure what the goals of the producers are with these panels and whether this strategy is effective at meeting them.
In the long run I don’t think it matters much one way or the other. The show will continue to be popular and people will continue to watch it whether they keep everything locked down closely or let info slip out. Then again, I’m not in the business so I could be totally wrong one way or the other.
(sigh) I was hoping the panel would be posted by now – it’s pretty much 8 hours since it happened. But I know you guys are doing the best you can, navigating with rights/ComicCon & all. I’m just bummed: I’d hoped I could view it this evening/night. Looking forward to it being posted tomorrow – great birthday present for me, along with Kit playing tennis in a goofy HBO movie with Andy Samberg. Cheers, all and good night!
Uno0,
You can watch Part 1 on YT here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD1sY1NcCOI
There are a few YT links of Part 1, but no Part 2 as of now.
I’m not sure if its the whole thing, but Flicks and the City has this up:
Darquemode,
I agree..I like TWD however,there is literally no “water cooler” talk with people who watch…I personally think arrow and flash have more in that regard.
P.s. are u affiliated with spoilertv?
Sergei Walankov,
You’re not missing anything. Unless you think you might enjoy entire episodes of people talking about their feelings while out on supply runs, zombies jumping out of nowhere to attack characters only to be stopped at the last second, and the completely superfluous deaths of pretty much every black male character in the show.
ser llawdog,
I bartend and wait tables and hear a number of people talk about TWD at work, but I agree… I don’t think it has the buzz like GOT. I may be a little biased though since I prefer GOT to TWD and pay more attention to those conversations… Not sure…..
Yes, I guess I am.
I’m not admin there or the owner etc… Just part of the team. Mostly a fan who has posted a lot of links and articles. I gave them the original foundation of their Photo Archive as well being one time Photo Archive Admin, but the title was mostly honorary I think! XD
The brother of an uncle of a cousin of a second-hand friend of mine that works in the publishing industry told me that Anne Groell is already editing the final version of tWoW. It´ll hit the store before Xmas.
So there you go.
I quite enjoyed the panel tho I wish Alfie had gotten more of an opportunity to talk. Also, think the producer was just there to monitor discussion of season 6. (Some of the audience questions were sort of ridiculous)
There aren’t enough men on the panel. I feel repressed.
mary,
That seems to be a theme. I remember some one posted here about running into one of the recurring actors who seemed pretty worn down about the show, too. I wonder if its just a case of people getting tired of the same fan questions over and over, actors getting tired of being tied for so long to a show that takes a lot of time to produce, or just some negative shift in the workplace culture.
I hope its just people getting tired of fan questions, but I’m sure workplace culture can change in show business just as much as it does any where else. I’m curious if actors getting tired of being tied to a particular show is some thing common in the industry, though.
I know many many people who talk about TWD. Nobody I know talks GOT with me. Natural that a GOT site would have people experiencing its talk more! Just depends on circles I guess. I love both shows. Having to rank something no. 1, especially by slamming something else seems rather stupid to me. Or at least tiresome.
Judging from their Instagrams, Mophie had a good time.
I tried watching season 1 of Walking Dead and was bored out of my skull. Quit after a few episodes. Of course, all the fans are, like, it got better! You know what? GoT hooked me right away. Breaking Bad hooked me right away. True Detective (s1) hooked me right away. That’s what good shows do. Life’s too short to give your dumb ass show two years to hook me.
LOL! Man, I thought the Star Wars fanbase were a bunch of smug, entitled jerks. GoT fandom is starting to set new standards.
The cast’s appearance on Conan was fun (albeit with mostly familiar anecdotes, if you follow the show as closely as people who read this site do), though given that there were nine of them I think Conan could have set aside the whole show, rather than also having the Walking Dead guys on again.
Here. I corrected it for you.
Sean C.,
I didn’t see it yet but I did see this Sophie-related tweet about the broadcast…
I understand why they did not show a casting video. This should be promotion but last year it ended in a disaster and had effects on the reception of whole season 5. After showing the casting video the book purists started to whine (Where is the wonderful Arianne? Where are Euron/Victarion? The Northern Lords? The Sandsnakes look different than in the books and why are there only 3 of them? *rolleyes*. Some forums got really negative and Season 5 was already hated before it aired. Self-fulfilling prophecy…..
If I would be the show producers I would try to keep as much as possible secret.
I don’t think the illiterate Carcunta101 has read any books, much less a series of 5000 pages.
The panel wasn’t terrible. There were some good answers from Gwendoline, John, and Sophie (hated her gum chewing but liked her point that what happened to Sansa had no bearing on whether she ultimately is strong or not). Conleth and Liam were fun comic relief (Conleth’s comment about his mother was pretty funny), and Maisie seems to put thought into her answers. Seth did a good job. Definitely missing Rory, Nicolaj, Kit, and Pedro – they brought spark and some good back and forth to last year’s panel!
Disappointing.
I think they should have vetted the questions in advance, or, if they did, vetted them better. Several ppl asked questions for the whole panel, Seth could have made a point of asking each person individually instead of rushing to the next question.
Leaving so many cliffhangers made discussion difficult IMO.
the panel wasnt that exciting, no interesting questions and it was obvious that they are trying to not talk much about Jon.
Liam about season 6 scripts “we are getting them in the next 24 hours” 🙂
At 5:20 minutes
It is not hard at all. You see, no matter how different two things, the value and quality is universal. I will ask you this: Which is the better profession, prostitution or medicine?
Plus TWD is terrible as a show, only season one being decent. It is like comparing a space craft with a bicycle.
I’m TWD fan and i’m member on any TWD community and what thing I can tell you is that almost everyone consider season 1 is by far the best season yet. This is common sense on internet. Anyway, the show is pretty good and quite unique on television.
TWD turned from being a great post-apocalyptic survival drama in S1 to exercise in misery and general awfulness. It also became very formulaic – Rick and the group wander through the woods for half a season, find some community, fuck it up, rinse and repeat (I fully expect Alexandria to go this way too by the end of S6). There are episodes where the characters literally wander through the woods and talk for the entire episode. Characters are introduced only to get killed randomly 3 episodes after that. I still watch it for the zombie action, but it’s not a good drama. It’s post-apocalyptic zombie schlock made by people who think they make great drama, sometimes to unintentionally comedic results.
Well that was flat. It felt like they were very wary of saying anything. Kit is one of Jon Bradley’s best friends and he said nothing when the question was asked. Thronecast on Sky Atlantic was much more fun. They did an in memorium reel which GOT should have stolen for sdcc.
This “imbecile” found this interview to be more honest and worthwhile than the actual panel.. Nice, these questions were more than one sentence, simple, crowdnumbing answers that were well thought out.
Sure, Bradley and Hill used their wit, but the rest of the cast was a bit off in the panel and on here.
David Nutter seems like an ass. Why would he just interrupt an actress (Carice) at the beginning when she’s given the turn to talk?
Pigeon,
I agree on everything you wrote. I’m probably an oddity here in that my world doesn’t revolve around casting news and I profoundly hate spoilers, but as a result I very much enjoyed the panel. A pity that Hannah didn’t get a reply in, though somehow that was in character as the lost Wildling. Conleth Hill was the star, would love to go to the pub with him.
TFT,
When you are talking with a group of friends, it never happens that two people start speaking around the same time and one presses on since they feel that what they have to say is particulalry pertinent? The question *was* ideal for him…
Alex Greyjoy,
Never watched TWD, but what you describe sounds like the repitition recipe used in every soap ever made, and they are often the most watched shows on tv (to my never-ceasing astonishment).
AMC also has a wider distribution than does HBO, which means that a lot more households have the option to watch TWD than have the option to watch Thrones.
They are only in comparison to normal people: but not to the Star Trek fanbase, the Doctor Who fanbase, the Harry Potter fanbase, the Tolkien fanbase, the Battlestar Galactica fanbase, the Lost fanbase, dozens of other fanbases that are not jumping to my head right now, and, of course, the Thrones fanbase.
How long is the full Conan interview? For whatever reason I can only find the first 11-12 minutes on their official site. Do they ever upload full interviews?
It’s hilarious to see the amount of people here who start panicking as soon as some degree of negativity appears in the comments.
Yes, this show took a turn for the worst the minute they penned last year’s scripts. A lot of people realized that when the first leaks about Jaime going to Dorne appeared.
At least, TWD doesn’t take a shit on its source material, despite all its flaws.
No “Dorne” quality scene that I can remember in this show at least.
According to who? You? Why should I consider your feelings or tastes important? The general viewers and the critics disagree with what you state, and chances are good that they are much more attuned to the actual story than are you.
TWD adheres only very loosely to the source material. Moreover, does the source material have anything as bad as Book Dorne quality? After all, Dorne was an absolute disaster in the books: Arianne is GRRM’s absolute nadir as a writer and the dreadful characterization and muddled plotting did nothing other than provide half the readers with the “Dorne is worse” position when we debated whether that or the Iron Islands offal was worse from Crows. (Of course, one steaming pile of feces is much like another when you are standing in it, I suppose; so, if you are in the “the Iron Islands was worse” school, then I respect your opinion and I won’t say that you are entirely wrong: you just are a little more wrong than right! 😉 )
Alex Greyjoy,
Totally agreed about TWD. It was good at the beggining, but it’s painfully repetitive and slow now. Wished they got rid of the annual “group vs community” storylines, the ridiculous psycopaths every 10 minutes and the annoying speeches and moved the story forward by going to Washington or something. But even then, I’m not invested in any of the characters, so the show will always leave me cold.
GoT is in a whole other level. The story and the characters are amazing. It’s all so much more exciting and engaging. No wonder it’s such a phenomenon. Don’t think TWD is remotely close.
We hold certain truths to be self-evident: that chopping off a man’s head is better than having him walk the earth forever, and that fucking a man is always better than fixing him.
Good guy Conan, not blocking other regions from watching his stuff, like all of the other American shows -.-
Conleth Hill is marvelous!!! What was it he said, “this has made me so much money”? LOL.
But there’s so much attention on this, HBO really should do some more prep on showing some new/exclusive material. It’s a bit of a missed opportunity otherwise, apart, of course, from the experience for the fans that actually get to be there, see and interact with everyone in the flesh.
Simeon,
Another brazilian here.
In my case, I actually know a lot of people who watch both TWD and GoT. But Thrones has the lead because it managed to captivate the ones that wouldn’t normally watch a fantasy show and the overall buzz is much bigger than the one generated by TWD. Even the president likes it.
PS: sou são-paulino, mas “87 é nosso”!
Out of all the ‘Rick vs psychopaths’ plotlines the show had, the one with cannibal colony annoyed me the most, because it didn’t make sense even in the world of TWD. It was just for shock value and nothing more. At least it didn’t drag for a season and a half like the Governor stuff did.
When people talk about GoT doing stuff for shock value, I always wonder if they ever saw TWD. TWD takes doing stuff for pure shock value to whole another level.
I don’t know anyone who watches the walking dead
Alex Greyjoy,
I agree as the whole storyline was a huge anti-climax and waste of a storyline with great potential; especially how they built it up during season 4 then had the storyline finish before the half way point in season 5.
TWD can not be compared to GOT in anyway as it lacks the character complexity, depth of storyline and quality of costumes and scenery GOT possesses. As Wimsey mentioned some of this can be attributed to the original source material.
One lesson Game Of Thrones can learn is that killing off your main characters will have a detrimental effect on the storyline and those departed characters can not be replaced by introducing new ones (how I missed Hershel and Beth’s contribution towards the end of the season)
With regard the TWD, I enjoyed season one but felt that Frank Darabont missed a huge opportunity to show how the virus took hold and destroyed society (yes I know they are doing a spin off). Ric could have been introduced towards the end of season and we could have seen the chaos and destruction through the eyes of Lori, the other survivors and the CDC staff. If this had been done then there would have been a lot more material for season two.
Season 2 although terribly slowly had depth and great moments of drama (ric killing those guys in the bar) and I really enjoyed season 3 but after episode 5 in Season 4 things went downhill. Episode 1, 0 and 11 from Season 5 were decent but I disliked how the season ended and would have preferred Ric’s being banished and his actions causing the group to split up for season 6. This would allow us to see more from characters like Abraham and Daryl.
It seems smart to lock down the new material until after Comic Con. Actors can’t be trusted not to let things slip and right now, the Jon Snow buzz is going to carry them all the way through the hiatus.
As a fan, I want more, but not getting more isn’t dampening my interest in the show.
They really are clever bastards. They can tease out some casting news like they are dribbling out the location news, maintaining interest and building speculation.
Total lack of casting or other info aside, I thought it was a good panel. Seth Meyers did a good job actually asking the actors about S5, Conleth Hill was great, etc. It’s true many of the actors seemed nervous and unusually tight-lipped, probably because they have read the scripts and are scared witless of spoiling something by accident. Did Hannah Murray say anything the entire time? However some other actors stepped in and seemed to be having a good time.
My one complaint is that, though it probably wasn’t his intention, Conleth kind of derailed the question about strong female characters suffering last season. I would have loved to hear the other female cast members share their feelings on that.
I am so tired of the term “strong female character.” I mean, there is part of the fandom thinks Sansa is now weak and useless because she was raped. (my eyes are rolling) Yet, no one says, “There are so many weak, useless female characters on the show that suffer. Why is that?”
Nope, it’s still “strong female character” for every female character. The phrase no longer has meaning.
Darkstar,
I met him one night in NH at his friend’s bachelor party…drank and smoked with him….he’s a cool dude…way cooler than Shaine aha
Well, that was disappointing. I understand their wings are clipped and they can’t give away too much, but last year had a casting video AND bloopers. This year? An audition tape
Fewer. /stannis
OK the panel was fun i knew we won’t get casting announcement so it was great then again anything with sophie is amazing for me oh and she remains one of the few peoples whose thoughts and comments are always perfect on the character which is no surprise she portrays her after all.
I agree. I think what they mean is a female character who actually has a personality and isn’t just an obligatory love interest for a male lead (who the story is about) or some other female role (mother, daughter, sister etc) who is largely irrelevant or even an inconvenience (Back to the Future part II) to the plot. Women should be portrayed as being real, not just strong or some stereotype standard hot chick, villain, battleaxe, mother, etc. and it’s thanks to Martin for writing these characters as such, no thanks to D&D who don’t appear to get it so much (but let’s see what they come up with in future).
Sophie seems to have an alarming tendency to speak with a strong hint of an American accent in interviews. Rather strange. Maybe she watched a lot of US TV.
H.Stark,
I guess that means Davos still has things to do in season 6 and we’ll be seeing the wall again.
the other guy,
Oh look another imbecile,we didn’t have enough of these so thank you .
Couldn’t disagree more with praising Martin over D&D in their portrayal of women. Come on Lyanna Stark is either a scrappy pixie dream girl or a weak-willed easily led snot. Ashara Dayne (whose moniker you have chosen) is a total cipher. Cersei is a caricature of a villain. Catelyn is an earth mother/bitter bitch. So many terrible female stereotypes in the books not to mention how he uses rape as background noise.
D&D aren’t the greatest, but they outshine Martin in their use of female characters.
Is it Opposite Day?
Ashara Dayne,
Huh? D&D are among those FEW that i mentioned and the biggest proof is what they’re doing with the character specially this season, sansa’s arc along with jon and cersei were the best in season 5 some of the scenes they wrote for her are among strongest in whole series but sadly so many people missed the whole point of it and apparently there is just no end to this lack of proper realization of the sansa from people.
By the way i don’t want to be rude or something but i’m having a hard time taking someone for serious who claims D&D don’t get things properly sorry.
HotPinkLipstick,
Fair enough, you disagree. I really can’t be bothered to go into lengthy discussions/arguments about it, but I think the characters are very complex and nuanced, rather than caricatures. I could point to numerous essays/blogs supporting my view, but they are all merely opinions, just as ours are. The fact that there are disagreements is a good thing. Most ‘worthy’ stories with good characterisations are so tediously dull or hard-to-read they aren’t particularly enjoyable, and most pop fiction has such dreadful characterisations they are sorely lacking and frustrating. It’s nice to find a balance.
Sorry I’m not sure which comment of yours you’re referring to?
Sorry I’m not sure which comment of yours you’re referring to? Will maybe check them all later when I have more time. I only replied to your comment about Sophie with a rather off-topic reply about her accent, IIRC I don’t think I replied to another, although I could easily be wrong of course.
No need to apologise or take me seriously. I’m no English lit expert or critic. No doubt I’m totally wrong about this so maybe I’ll just shut up now.
BTW love how polite and intelligent most ppl on here are- such a refreshing change from YouTube where disagreement is usually more along the lines of ‘your totally wrong’ or ‘fuck you’.
In terms of the Walking Dead… yeah, the show really is not that great. I mean, I SOMEWHAT enjoyed the first 2 & a half seasons, but it’s not nearly as good as some make it out to be.
The graphic novels, however, are fantastic. I really would recommend them highly.
On the topic of the panel, I haven’t watched it yet… however, Mark Ellis and Ken Napzok of Schmoes Know give their thoughts in this video:
In regards to the video posted by a commenter … Of the scripts for season6 “fantastic ” and “best ever”
Ahhhhh can’t wait
Deesensfan,
They said the same about last season.
Valiryan,
Yourself,i agree !
None of those are accurate descriptions of those characters as a whole. And if you have to pretend they are, then it’s probably because you’re full of shit and trying really hard to paint GRRM with the misogynist brush.
Neither showrunners nor GRRM deserve the brush, and the show isn’t really more/less misogynistic than is the book series. Both versions portray very well a set of societies that are highly misogynistic. Portraying misogynistic societies is different from a misogynistic portrayal, just as accurately depicting Nazi Germany or the American South will depict bigotry without being a bigoted depiction. (For the difference, contrast “Gone with the Wind” [= bigoted depiction] with “Mississippi Burning [= depicting bigotry].)
What both show and books have done is present a range of women: some strong and intelligent (Daeny, Arya), some foolish and ignorant (Cersei, Arianne), and some in between who are learning on the job, be it rapidly (Catelyn, Brienne) or slowly (Sansa).
GRRM’s one book that comes across as misogynistic is Crows. I remember one particular scathing review that relabelled it something like “Failure of Clits,” as every storyline but Jaime’s and Sam’s featured a woman trying to succeed in a man’s world and failing miserably. Moreover, in the cases of Cersei, Arianne and Asha, the women seemed to be completely overmatched by men and amazingly clueless about it. The one female that turned out to be succeeding (Arya) had her storyline truncated at a point where it seemed that she was failing: the blinding that seemed like failure and punishment is revealed to be a next step in the training. Still, Arya doesn’t kill the girl and become the woman until her Dragons chapters.
Now, part of that was just bad planning by GRRM: if he never had bothered with Arianne, left Cersei, Asha and Brienne as secondary (and thus non-PoV) characters, kept the Jon, Daeny, Tyrion & Theon chapters from Dragons (albeit perhaps with some of the padding eliminated) and added chapters showing Sansa actually evolve into someone who ever thinks (which we finally see in the Alayne chapter from Winter), then the full Daeny + Arya + Sentient Sansa would have had woman struggling to kill the inner girls (making mistakes along the way!), but coming out ahead with a new woman being born from those ashes.
However, none of this would have changed that Daeny + Arya + Sansa would be women succeeding despite being in misogynistic worlds in which the mere fact that they are women reduces them to entities no better than bastards, cripples and dwarfs. But that’s fine: most feminist literature is about women struggling to succeed in misogynistic worlds; the difference is that you have to have at least some of them succeed or at least fail only superficially when men take credit for their deeds.
Aren’t you a charmer?
There is no character to Ashara Dayne. She’s nothing. She’s just what your imagination wants her to be. The same with Lyanna Stark. These are too supposedly important characters that are nothing but blank slates for the reader to imprint.
I want to like Cersei but her Feast chapters are just so ridiculously evil. She’s just poorly written.
You need to read the books, as just the books. No essays explaining to you what they mean. No meta on each character. Just the books on their own. Then you can see what I mean about the characterizations.
If you have to read other peoples’ essays to understand the character, then original writing is pretty poor.
Failure of clits seems about right.
I love how the cast responded to the crazy third wave feminists. Especially Maisie Williams. It’s not the first time she’s spoken out against that kind of nonsense.
You reduce all of the characters to archetypes, which can literally be done for any character of any work of fiction, and expect people to take your inability to reflect on the nuances of the characters as serious analysis. Sometimes it’s not the work that’s the problem, it’s you.
Oh, sweetie. Oh you adorable precious thing.
Well-written characters cannot be reduced as such without ignoring 70% of the text. Not so for the specific GRRM characters I have mentioned. Cersei is cartoonishly bad. Lyanna Stark and Ashara Dayne are not written at all. And Catelyn is just a complete idiot, then an unreasonable zombie.
I’m not saying the books aren’t good. They are good fun. They are highly entertaining. But they aren’t great literature and GRRM clearly struggles writing women. That doesn’t make him a terrible person, but you can’t say he’s brilliant at writing women and D&D suck at portraying women on screen, which was the initial silly assertion.
There is the odd bit of trolling and toxicity, Ashara, even here, though I note you say “most people” and not “everybody”. I noted that somebody who had said he/she did not like season 5 of GoT and said they were disappointed about the lack of a casting video and I thought that if he/she hates the show so much why should they be bothered one way or the other. As for the people who go on about how many folk watch the Walking Dead. I was tempted to type “I neither know nor care”. It’s true of course the internet be dark and full of trollers. Best thing is to develop a broad back (metaphorically speaking). I think Sue the Fury does her best to keep untoward posts off the website but of course she’s a busy lady (sorry for taking your Avatar in vain StF).
HotPinkLipstick,
Yeah, condescending only works when you have the argumentation to back it up. You do not.
Your point: GRRM writes bad female characters.
Your case: Because I think they’re bad.
Consider me unconvinced.
And on the point of archetypes. No. All characters have a basis in archetypes. All. That’s what archetypes are. And reducing characters to their archetypes, that is the most basic component of their character, is what critical theorists in media tend to do all the time with laughably shallow, borderline pointless, analyses. Anita Sarkeesian being a good example.
The tropes! The tropes! That fundamental element of all storytelling! Look at it! Yeah, no.
Conleth Hill is hilarious!
That said the Panel seemed rather subdued and not so much into it compared to normal, Liam Cunningham was making an effort mind
A few times I got the impression the questioners wanted each of the actors to go through the question but often only one actor gave a short answer and then they moved on
Having David Nutter on was a good idea. Could have done with that Sapochnik guy who did Hardhome as well perhaps
Just announce Madds Mikellsen as Euron Greyjoy and I shall have a happy summer!
Hannah Murray hardly said a word up there besides the mention of her mounting Sam in the worst sex scene on the show thus far. We need to see those wildling teets in S6!
Hannah Murray didn’t say much because she’s not really a main character. She said enough I think.
mary,
I watched the panel only BC I’m on vacation in Croatia (near split and kastel where they filmed but on an island directly across the sea) and WiFi on my phone is my only source of entertainment. The audition reel was shit as was the other vid they released. The cast seems to go there to soak up their five minutes of fame and adoration. The chick that plays Gilly didn’t say a single word I believe. Conleth hill was the most entertaining. Maisie, Sophie and Natalie dormer are just attention seekers. Oh and Alfie Allen seems like a cool person. All in all, completely forgettable And not worth a rewatch
“Grandma ain’t gonna be around…” -ND. No more Queen of Thorns? Bummer 🙁
Love Liam Cunningham’s snarky commentary, Conleth Hill’s rebuff of the dragon question & all of his hilarious answers, Sophie Turner’s clever & dignified response to THE question that someone was bound to ask, and Gwendoline Christie for being AMAZING in every way.