The Game of Thrones Q&A from San Diego Comic Con is finally online, courtesy of Flicks and the City!
The Q&A opens up with friendly banter between Rory McCann and Gwendoline Christie over their characters’ duel, before moving on to topics such as what book god would George R.R. Martin worship, whether ASOIAF fans should keep watching the show as it catches up with the books, and how do the actors prepare for their roles.
Around the 15:50 mark in the video, Kit Harington reveals that he starts filming on Monday for a “great scene.”
George R.R. Martin also appeared in a separate Q&A at SDCC, where he discussed writing and comics. Luckily, Flicks and the City caught this panel as well. In case you missed these previously posted videos, today at the Game of Thrones panel HBO shared a Season 4 bloopers reel, and a video introducing the new Season 5 cast members.
Varys
I thought the questions were better this year than last, and I liked the way Fergusson let the fans ask the questions and sort of piggybacked off of them. With such a large panel, I wish it lasted for another half hour. John Bradley and Rory McCann stood out as being the funniest. Although, Nicolaj’s response to the ‘direwolf or dragon’ question was hilarious.
Nice to get D&D’s response to cutting the Tysha reveal.
Much better than last year, Craig did a really good job, I thought.
Rory and Gwen were hilarious together!
I do wish some of the questions were better, they usually just recycle everything everyone’s already been asked and it gets tiresome and wastes time. But I liked hearing about the fighting sequence and being the Sansa stan that I am, I adored hearing Sophie’s insights. She’s quite funny, I liked the bit about her and Tyrion, that was sweet.
And oh my lord, this was practically a roasting of D&D via GRRM. That was fantastic. That bit about Jeyne being alive still, I was laughing so hard. You can really tell he loathes certain aspects of the show.
Nice new digs! And awesome new posts! Love this place and hope to see it grow and flourish!
Craig Ferguson was a great moderator and there were a bunch of interesting moments there, but I wish that they would somehow pre-screen questions, or that people would be more conscientious when they get a chance at the mic. It’s such a short panel, I get frustrated watching people taking up time to ask questions that could be just as sufficiently answered by Google. I’m not a huge fan of a lot of changes from book content either, but how many times should they have to repeat that the show is a different thing and they can’t do everything, and can’t discuss such-and-such thing that was dropped? They handled those moments pretty gracefully, but there are so many other topics people could have touched on instead.
I think I would have enjoyed it more if GRRM wasn’t a part of the panel. Nothing against him being there, I just would have like more questions about the show and less ones comparing it to the books.
Fuelpagan,
This! George does so many panels and Q&As already, I would have loved hearing more from the cast. I would have liked hearing less about the books and the technical aspects of creating the show and more about the cast and stories they had to tell!
They always end up with too many people on the panels. I think in future panels they should cut down the number of cast members they have purely for conversation’s sake, idk maybe that’s just me.
(it’d be great to see some members on interviews like Nerd HQ like Richard did last year, that was a blast, so funny and much more intimate a venue)
Sansa Bird,
I think you’re seeing things that aren’t there to be honest or wishing to .
I agree with this as well. It’s great that so many of the cast were able to come and participate, but a lot of them had very little opportunity to speak, especially since so many of the questions were directed at GRRM and D&D.
Sorry, you’re reaching there.
I agree that they should have lesser numbers for these panels, and probably leave George out of it too. Not that I don’t enjoy hearing George’s opinion, but when it’s about the show I’d much rather hear D&D and the actual cast talk about that exclusively, not the books which is it’s own entity (I mean seriously, how many times during this panel did they need to reiterate this?). Pretty disappointed we didn’t get to hear much from Natalie, Pedro and Nikolaj in particular.
But in saying that, I liked this panel a lot more than last year. Ferguson was a fantastic host!
First of all: congrats on the new site!
Second: It was a good panel, and I thought Craig Ferguson did a great job. I wish the fan questions had been better (and there had been less questions for George, who has answered the same questions he was asked so many times before in readily-available and high-quality interviews, masterclasses, panels, conventions, etc.), and I wish the panel was either longer or perhaps a little smaller, since it seemed so thinly spread out they barely touched base with all the actors. They all got to say one or two things and that was it – particularly with Pedro, Nikolaj, and Natalie.
Highlights: George revealing that tidbit about the prologue of TWOW (Casterly Rock!!!) Maisie saying Arya is “No one!” [cryptic silence], Nikolaj choosing direwolves over dragons (‘easier to kill’), Rory and Gwendoline talking about their fight…overall it was the best Comic-Con panel since Season 1. I’d still love to see Rob McElhinney do another nice, long Emmys panel–that would be amazing.
These panels are always fun!
Gwen was sassy as ever, but Rory held his own! XD
I loved Craig as the moderator…
The artisan cheese farm line killed me! MMMMMM Cheeese!
That said, I wish each moderator was required to watch all the previous panels so they could avoid questions asked and answered the years before.
Other suggestions…
– I think it would be better if they had D&D and no more than 5 actors.
– I would love if they kept up the pattern of having actors whose characters were killed off the season before. They often have new and fresh things to add to the conversation compared to the same stale questions.
– I would love if they screened the audience questions as someone suggested. So many of the questions are just pointless and others have been asked and answered so many times before.
Pickcd nits aside… the panel was a lot of fun this year!
I Really like the site. Awesome job guys!
And the log in form recognizes me! yay!
Better audio in the Flicks And The City’s one I think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfgCpkHW1IE&feature=youtu.be
Good! Although there were too many questions for GM and the Ds and not enough for the actors. Maisie barely spoke a word.
I enjoyed the bloopers. They should do more of those.
I always watch the intros to see fans lose their minds.
This year the love seemed to go to Pedro. Fitting.
This was a great panel and I also thought Craig Ferguson did a great job of moderating. It was better than the last time.
Really loved the bloopers reel, hopefully it wil be part of the upcoming boxset.
Just an FYI, on the second video GRRM mostly just talks about his other projects outside ASOIAF
Lots of book readers grilling D&D with their questions lol.
Agree – way too many questions for GRRM and D&D and some of them are the same questions asked over and over again.
Loved seeing all of these actors but there was too little time to hear from all of them.
Still this was the best panel in years.
THIS^^!! Feelin’ the love. Thanks, guys!
Agree that questions should be screened. Agree that panel should be longer to allow for more from each person. Love the interactions between actors! Perhaps it would be better without GRRM, but love the respect D&D show him by always including him.
Turncloak,
I laughed at the Stannis the Mannis question/comment. I also noted that they still refuse to comment on LS. When a character is cut, they usually come out and say so, or at least they do when questioned(Belwas and Coldhands come to mind).
TaviColen123,
About the George and D&D thing? I don’t know how anyone could have missed it to be honest! Every chance George got, he mentioned how D&D have changed things or killed characters that are still alive, it was pretty tense!
John Bradley (West? I’m never sure) needs to be invited back for every panel. He had me in absolute stitches with that response about male nudity!! The person who opened his question with a “Hi Natalie…and the rest of the cast” was also quite cute. The question wasn’t even for her : )
Gotta say–love that the video feed captured (the sound of) the audience reaction to the casting announcements. Really, really great stuff. Because it deserves to be screamed over and over again–JONATHAN PRYCE!!!
D&D we needed a long dialogue scene to explain the Tysha story how about cutting the stupid Beetle story. We don’t have enough time to tell the story well stop doing the Grey Worm Missy Ship. Captain Jack Sparrow though that dude killed it and I guess they have a kill switch on the mic so if AngryGameofThronesFanssss ever gets on there!
ReznakMoRoastSnakz,
I’ve got to believe they meant the constant inner monologues Tyrion has about Tysha throughout the books, more so than one single scene. They still should have included the revelation, as the story had been established on the show, but I see what they mean. I just wish they would show more faith in the audience to follow the story.
Tyrion Pimpslap,
Most of my friends, even the more diligent, can’t remember the Tysha story… Even if it doesn’t have the same impact, I think D&D were right to only use Shae ah this moment.
I didn’t think Craig Ferguson was a good choice. He seemed clueless about the show and asked pointless questions of the audience, (i.e., Who read the books? Most of the crowd. Does reading the books give you a better understanding of the story? Resounding yes.) thinking he would be able to prove the point that they’re both great.
I wish they would screen the questions for the purpose of ensuring every panelist gets a question. Poor Natalie Dormer.
Also, I wish they’d quite picking on Kit and his hair. It’s getting old.
I wish Kit had explained his supposed comment about male nudity, but he seemed embarrassed.
I agree that they need to leave GRRM off the panel, though he did give some thoughtful responses this time. For those who watched the Starz Outlander panel, if they think GRRM is awkward, Diana Gabaldon is so much worse.
Loved the panel for the most part.
Rory and Gwendolyn are fantastic together. No…not “shipping” that by any means, they just played off each other so well. Definitely the highlight of the panel. They both have magnetic personalities during interviews.
Have to echo a few people here. Lots of cast members and not enough time to get a lot of insight. I think this type of panel would be best served if GRRM and D&D do one panel, the cast another. I like to hear what all 3 have to say but find the cast always has antidotes that are interesting and give us an inside look into characters that the show runners just can’t.
And BRAVO on the new site!
The thing that annoyed me the most was their failure to filter the audience questions. And while the pirate guy did a good Jack Sparrow and was funny, he was there only to promote himself. Also, agree with most that GRRM shouldn’t really even be there or be on a separate panel with D&D. It seems that the actors’ insights are always so much more interesting (at least to me). I love to know how they perceive their characters and the thought process they go through in order to portray them.
dreamlife,
Now I have to go watch the Outlander panel because I’ve seen Diana Gabaldon in person several times (up close Q&A at Celtic Festivals, readings, signings, high tea, etc) and she is always interesting and charismatic.