We’ve got yet more casting news for you today!
The actor Kevin Eldon has been identified as the Leading Actor in the colourful theatre troop appearing in Season 6, currently filming in Girona.
Eldon is a stand-up comedian, poet and actor well known for having roles in seemingly every British comedy over the last twenty years, as well as for starring in his own BBC comedy series It’s Kevin and as the new voice of Penfold in the Danger Mouse reboot. He’s also appeared in films including Hugo, Hot Fuzz and Four Lions.
While the name of Eldon’s character isn’t known at the moment, the Leading Actor role is the one that appeared in this casting breakdown .
Described as, “using a pronounced Northern accent,” and, “a flamboyant caricaturist,” it seems like Eldon’s comedic chops will be perfect for the part. He certainly has a lot of experience utilising multiple accents and personae thanks to his background in sketch comedy.
Thanks to eagle-eyed WotW reader Gravemaster for first identifying Eldon!
Take another look at Eldon in costume below (spoilers)
It looks like Eldon’s leading actor will be playing the part of Ned Stark in the troupe’s performance. He can be seen on set with Richard E. Grant’s Grand Theatre Actor/Manager.
And here with Essie Davis and Maisie Williams.
HBO has not yet confirmed the casting at this time.
There’s so much casting news, I can barely keep up with it all!
Sounds like they’re really going all out with the theater troupe. Looking forward to seeing it in action. Is it 2016 yet?
Hodor?!
Great scoops but I’ve got to say I really can’t muster much excitement when they cast characters I’ve never heard of!
But yeah, anyone in Hot Fuzz and Four Lions wins me over. The remake of the classic Dangermouse is more of a worry though!
I’m just stoked they’re assembling such a great cast. No slacking, going into the sixth year.
TheTouchOfFrost,
Do the characters themselves really matter? The point is that they’re going all in with the play, which is awesome. I hope they’ll use their usual wit to make this hilarious.
He’s not a massive name (not that I would expect one), but he’s been in a lot of TV shows (mainly comedies) and he’s always very good. I think he’s well regarded by other comic actors as well, and the role suits him.
The theatre scenes are really shaping up well. The cast for them is as good as you could hope for, and the costumes/sets look great too!
I think the young lead actor who plays Joffrey seems familiar too but I can’t quite pin him down.
I can’t handle the truth! Info overload. Need whiskey.
Hodor’s Bastard,
Wouldn’t the third sentence be true anyway?
Now this has made my day! He was awesome in big train! Gonna have to find the dvds now and rewatch!
Im really looking forward to Arya’s storyline this season. It looks like she is going to be heavily featured (hopefully) and they are putting a lot into her storyline and casting some good actors. I hope she shares a few scenes with Richard E Grant (which she obviously should be). She has great chemistry with older actors (Sean Bean, Rory McCann, Charles Dance, Francis Magee etc) so I think they would be great together
jentario,
To get this to work properly, they will have to go all in, don’t they. Especially now that it’s a 3 episode thing. You need actors able to play actors playing characters. That requires some skills!
jentario,
My point was that because I have no pre-conceptions of the characters I don’t have as much interest in who’s being cast. Possibly because comparison adds a bit more flesh to the discussion. Only time I’m interested is if it’s an actor I’m a fan of…like the McShane announcement.
Dutch Maester,
That’s one of the reasons I think Alfie Allen’s perforamces are criminally overlooked. At one point he was playing a character who had changed into another character and who was then pretending to be that original character. Not many folks could have pulled that off convincingly.
TheTouchOfFrost,
Very tropic thunder 🙂
I know who I am. I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!
I hope the play will be over the top, make Joffrey seem like a noble ruler who was poisoned by the evil jealous dwarf.
Sue the Fury,
Absolutely. Their casting has always been spot on and I’m really getting excited for the next season!
P.S. Why is it only September?
Great casting. I’ll always remember Kevin Eldon as the Cleaner in Black Books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4wBLUBa8YI
Sue the Fury,
Sue,
any news on if the Red Priestess has been cast already and/or if she’s filmed already?
Thanks again for all the great work.
Great British comedic ‘hey it’s that guy’! Also part of Graham Linehan’s cotiree of actors -he was part of the ‘Big Train’ troupe and had a memorable role with a heavily faux French accent in ‘The IT Crowd’.
Someone was asking if there was a complete listing of all the S6 cast somewhere and Sue said there was not. She recommended they filter through all the posts and put it together on the forum. I had some time to kill tonight so I hooked the unknown person up… pass it on if you know who it was!
https://watchersonthewall.com/topic/season-6-casting-compendium-updated-91115/
Mark,
Weirdly, Glen Barry seems like a pretty close match to me in this clean-shaven picture I found off google. No idea how old that picture is, though….
Anguissette1979,
Thanks! Really helpful!
That’s awesome, thanks for that!
It helps that the show is such a phenomenon. It seems like there are many actors of note that are fans of the show and would/could actively petition for a role on GoT. I think any agent would consider Thrones the holy grail of television too.
Considering the scale of the endeavour, the producers and casting directors have done a remarkable job. D&D really seem to have momentum on their side right now. I hope they stick the landing.
He plays the court jester in bbc’s Merlin! i feel like this is such a similar role for him!!!
How do i send GOT casting crew my face? it would be a dream come true to be any part of this show!
Iwan Rheon and Kit Harington has also been spotted again:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COqgVIoWcAA9JsQ.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/COqgVI3WUAA0MCh.jpg
https://twitter.com/ManuelZapata/status/642502194118443008
Boudica,
I’ve read rumors before(mostly in jest) that they cast a short actor to play Ramsey because of an eventual showdown with Jon(Kit). I’m starting to believe them. 🙂
Great news! Kevin Eldon is an excellent comic actor and has worked with pretty much all of my favourite comedians. I am looking forward to seeing these scenes more and more!
Just curious. What are “Eldon’s comedic shops”? Has he opening a chain of comedy supply stores, selling old jokes or discarded Black Adder scripts, and stuff like that? I’ve lost my senser utah, you see. I need my mojo back. Are they on-line as well?
Hey, I have not read the novels so please tell me, is the theatre play that important?
We do not know Sou, it’s in TWOW.
Didn’t Iwan originally audition for the role of Jon, anyhow? How tall are they both, out of curiosity?
Dornish Pastie,
Iwan was the second choice for Jon according to D and D on the commentary for ep. 303.
Dornish Pastie,
Yes, he was going for the other bastard role first. They’re 5’8″. Same as John Bradley.
TheTouchOfFrost,
I suppose the re-making of ‘Dangermouse’ had to use some re-casting as Terry Scott who played the original Penfold is no longer with us. David Jason from “Touch of Frost” and who was the original danger mouse is of course still around. I don’t suppose this will mean much to people outside the UK – I don’t know if “Danger Mouse” was one of the British shows which travelled abroad. They’ve remade “Clangers” I understand though I haven’t watched the remake – not yet anyway.
Dame of Mercia,
The Clangers remake is actually pretty adorable. And it has Michael Palin doing the narration
Kibbler,
Didn’t mind Tropic Thunder but I don’t think it was a sa good as it could have been with that collection of talent.
Dame of Mercia,
I guess if it works for a new generation then fair enough but I’ll stick with the original. That said, I thought the remakes of He-man and Thundercats were very good. As much as I loved the originals, they actually had a plot and character development this time! Althogh the planned remake of Big Trouble in Little China is something straight out of Satan’s rear end!
TheTouchOfFrost,
Agreed AA has been flexin his acting ability throughout the entire show
Lol I don’t know this joker from a can of paint, but everyone on the comment board is swooning over this guy. What I get outta that is 1 I don’t know that many actors and 2 sounds like the show has aquired more great talent. Man I’m starting to really have high hopes for season 6 after that average season 5. I tell myself even my favorite show of all time (sopranos) had an average season or 2, so GoT should get the same leeway
Yeah, I’m scratching my head at the choice to hire prominent actors for what seems like a throwaway scene, unless they’re going for a Hamlet-style “Players” (great in the Kenneth Branagh movie with, of all people, Charlton Heston giving the big speech)…guess we’ll see when it airs!
Oh look. Batman & Joker hanging out
God of tits and wine,
It may seem like a throwaway scene but, but we just have a small context from the advance WOW chapter – there may be a lot more we do not know yet…
TheTouchOfFrost,
I love Alfie Allen’s portrayal of Theon/ Reek . He is very over looked as an actor in GOT. I feel he has the most difficult character to pull off on the entire show and he does it flawlessly ! He should definitely win an award for his performance ! Kick Ramsay’s Ass Theon / Reek !!!
Well, I am defininitely not a person who is a fan of crackpot theories.
However, I can not stop thinking about the theatre group and its role in the show, and the fact that production hired such a interesting cast only witha purpose of being somehow connected to Arya (main character) makes me wonder.
If someone brought the idea before me, I apologize (because I have not been reading all thousands of comments in every post.
Well, I just speculate they are not only the theatre Company, but the Pretenders to the real throne, in other words, I wildely guess that #TeamJonCon is introduced via them.
No, I am not a devouted fan of Faegon and Joncon, I am even totally neutral about the fact they are not on the show….but, seven hells. just look at those photos from Spain..
One can easily see Connington (Richad E. Grant), Aegon (kid who plays “Joffrey”), Septa Lemore etc…
So, guys kill me if you want, but I can not resist to share this idea…
I was wondering this myself. Three episodes and with so many high caliber actors? The re-enactment of the War of the Five Kings at Joffrey’s wedding last two minutes and was mostly played in the background. This either has some greater relevance than anyone knows, or is just the filler of fillers, which would be odd considering all the ground they still have to cover.
God of tits and wine,
The sopranos never had a poor season!!!!!!!!!!! Neither has game of thrones!!!!!!!!!!! The best two shows ever made period.
Now if only they’d have cast Richard Fulcher for the theater troupe. He would have been a great Robert. 😉 #bobfossil
Dame of Mercia,
Danger Mouse was a staple when cable TV first hit the USA.
Could the theatre troup be traveling from Essos to Westeros (and taking a major character with them)? And that’s why they cast actors with that caliber? Could they have an extended role that takes them through the next season as well?
Anguissette https://watchersonthewall.com/topic/season-6-casting-compendium-updated-91115/
Cross posted the list here for future editability and legibility
http://www.fleabottom.net/t60854620/season-6-casting-compendium-updated-91215-spoilerish/
Anguissette1979,
The GoT wiki also has a comprehensive list of returning starring cast, returning guest starring cast, new major cast members, new minor cast members and reported new characters (whose casting we don’t know about yet), all of them sourced —most of them to Watchers on the Wall. I and a few others try to take care of having the list updated.
There is also a summary of the on-location production, again sourced to WOTW, which I mostly manage on my own right now:
Ok, if we’re going to go there…Cersei actress = Lyanna. Joffrey actor = child of Lyanna and Rhaegar, returning to Westeros with the support of the FM.
Luka Nieto,
Well shit. Can I get those two hours of my life back then? Someone was asking about a full list of new cast on here the other day and no one mentioned this.
Anguissette1979,
Sorry. I didn’t see it.
lisa0527,
lisa0527,
I admit my idea sounds silly even in my mind.
But you must ask yourself why cast so realtively well known actors only to build up a story arc for a main character.
Probably they won t end as #TeamJonCon, but I still wonder about the choice of actors.
The Actor Kevin Eldon has been a big figure on UK comedy shows for about 20 years now. His first notable role was on FIST OF FUN (which also gave us Richard Herring and the brilliantly crazy Stewart Lee) where he played “The King of Hobbies.” Terrific comic actor.
I’ve seen the comparison before, but I hope they’re right and this is going to be GoT’s version of “The Ember Island Players” from AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER. That was a fantastic episode.
Adam Whitehead,
A fantastic pre-finale episode for a fantastic show. If this Braavos pantomine is half as funny as that episode, it’s going to be amazing.
The_Rabbit01,
I don’t think it’s silly. I agree with you that there’s some very cool explanation for the prominence of the troupe. It seems to be more than a device to get Arya to Westeros. Anyone know if the theatre actors are under contract for season 7?
The_Rabbit01,
I don’t think it’s too crazy. Not likely to be right (just based on odds of guessing such a thing), but it seems not at all unlikely that something of that nature is the truth. It just seems to fit with the thrust of GOT to start with a band of entertainers and then have them emerge through the next season as something far more important, especially given what they’re miming.
Anguissette1979,
I think it was I who asked a couple of days ago because the casting news come and go and I thought it would be nice to have a list of the new ones. Thank you for your initiative and I am sorry for the lost 2 hs of your life if it was my comment that initiated all this…
Yyyyep, my thoughts exactly. Arya the mummer….I wonder if she’ll ever have to play a role as Daenerys, in front of Daenerys, with someone else’s face? I know that won’t happen, but I think it would be cool. I think Arya is going to travel with the troupe back to westeros, help her brother do what he has to do, and then get killed by a faceless man and have her face taken in the end.
Lisa0527,
I suspsect that it cannot be just a device to get Arya to Westeros. It must have some other significance too, if not a few ones. Three eps are too many to be invested as a corridor to Arya’s transportation to Westeros. Do we know in which eps are we gonna see them? If its the last three eps then there are high chances that the theatre group or parts of it will have material in S7 too…
I think Leigh Gill is the troupe’s Tyrion. Seeing as we only have a picture of the actor from the side it’s not much to go on, but they have the exact same beard, and the show has used Oh So Small actors agency several times in the past.
I wonder if it could play out similarly to ARya’s season 1 escape from KL with the Night’s Watch.
Shows are like sports teams: you get the best people available for your main roles and for your supporting roles. Thrones has a big enough name now and such high regard in the entertainment world that they are able to get pretty big names for small parts. It might cost the show a little more: but it means high quality even in short sequences.
I recall last year people could not understand why they recast Myrcella over such a small part: yet that small part could have been misperformed; ditto that for the [probably] small parts here.
I am wondering if it won’t be a device to get Arya to meet Daeny instead. I’ve long thought that Arya will return to Westeros with Daeny, not on her own. (Wolf Ninja Duchess and Dragon Queen: that’s a hard pair to beat!)
Hmmm let’s see
Sue the Fury,
Oh yeah, it’s working.
It was popular in the US 30 years ago when I was in university. Well, by “popular,” I mean that drunken college students would watch it at 2 AM on Nickelodeon. When they were not dating anyone to provide them with better 2 AM activities.
That’s sort of like being popular, isn’t it?
Sue the Fury,
It seems it needs to highlighted to get to work rather than be clicked on.
Wimsey,
I get what you’re saying but the Myrcella thing has nothing to do with my point. Myrcella was recast because they probably weren’t sure if the previous actress could deliver more meaty scenes.
For the theater troup, they could have cast tons of amazing actors yet unknown by most people, like they have done before. The fact that they cast well-known actors is what makes me question if the characters are meant to be more recurring than we thought (which would mean appearances in season 7 as well) or if they will play an important role in the few scenes they’ve got in season 6.
All that to say that I hope we get amazing characters that won’t simply be throw-aways. : )
Wimsey,
So… you haven’t heard the WOTW confirmation that Arya will go to the Riverlands by the end of season six (somewhere in the last two episodes)? Time to scrap that old theory of yours, I’m afraid, though I quite liked it myself 😉
I mean, she may meet Dany later, in season six or seven, but not in season six. Unless you believe Dany will be in the Riverlands in the end of season six for some reason.
Sue the Fury,
It’s working but I can’t unveil it by clicking.
Luka Nieto,
Try refreshing and see if you can do that now.
Is she actually going to be there, or is she going to see herself there?
Arya gets about an hour of screen time each year. Given that they are doing blindness and the theater troop bit (plus some assassin vs. assassin stuff), I have to think that Arya seeing herself there through someone else’s eyes seems more plausible to me. This seems all the more plausible given that a likely reason to keep Arya’s blindness is to
Still, I suppose that they could somehow do (say) 3 episodes of blindness, 3 episodes in the troupe, and 2-3 episodes of her returning/being in Westeros. (Arya usually is missing from an episode or two a year.) Still: that seems kind of rushed if we look at her plotlines from prior years, doesn’t it?
Now, my crack-pipe is finally heated up!
Sue the Fury,
Yep, it works after refreshing. 🙂
But it really is the same thing as with Myrcella: they want the best possible for everything. I would look at it the other way around: what they managed to do was get some pretty highly regarded character actors who constantly are working on one project or another. They would not have time for huge roles: but they did have time for small ones.
The one difference is that when you cast quality for older parts, then you usually go with known quantities. After all, these people have resumes that are decades old. When you cast quality for characters that are under two decades old, then you have people with resumes that are only a few years old at most.
Sue the Fury,
Yeap, that worked 🙂
Wimsey,
Because of filming leaks and the directors spotted in the scene, we know precisely when in the season these events you mention take place, as we know which directors will direct which episodes. The blindness will go on for three or four episodes, then in the mid-season Arya will be with the troupe (for 3 episodes), and in either episode 7 or 8 she will be chased through the streets of Braavos by a murderous Waif. So she has two to three episodes to arrive in the Riverlands and do whatever it is she has to climactically do this season.
Anyway, you might not be completely wrong, as you might not have considered the possibility that the reason she goes to the Riverlands is precisely that she has a wolf dream or warging in which something happens that makes her want to go there.
Also, if it was merely a vision / wolf dream / warging scene, it wouldn’t have leaked that Arya will be in the Riverlands, because Maisie Willaims wouldn’t be involved.
Jeez, that’s no bigger than me. Hey, don’t tempt me to say ‘Bastardbowl’ again… Oh no, wait.
Cheers for the facts 🙂
dothrakian raven,
It’s all good. I had no idea there already was a list and agreed with you/whomever that it would be nice to have a status list 🙂
The_Rabbit01,
I agree with your idea that this theater troupe may prove more than a vehicle for Arya to hang out with. It does seem to be an excessively talented cast for the theater troupe, and also three episodes seem to me to be a bit long for all these actors. Perhaps they do emerge as real “players” in this world, but I don’t know if the fAegon route is where they will go. Since the Red Priestess audition mentioned mummers to Tyrion, I think they may go to Meereen and be connected to Varys and his network.
I gather Oz and a friend were still working on the spoiler coding as I tried it, that’s why it needed to be refreshed before it really worked. Thanks for your patience, everyone! The server change messed with far more things than we anticipated.
Arya would be if she saw herself in Nymmeria’s place. That is a common enough visual technique when people “psychically” or “telepathically” see the world through another individual’s eyes/mind.
Obviously we do not know what the story is for Winter, so it’s extra tough to guess what the “I’m not X, I’m Y” trajectory is going to be for the main characters. However, whatever Arya does at the end of the season has to be set up in the prior 7-8 episodes: and if her climax is in the Riverlands, then they cannot start a de novo plotline for that in 2 episodes without making it look like the Essos stuff was just a waste of time or making it seem like there is any sort of setup for the payoff.
So, I guess that raises the real question: what sort of identity crisis can blindness and acting induce and further in Arya that has a payoff with her in the Riverlands? Given the paucity of evidence we have, I would say that Arya seeing herself in Nymmeria’s shoes, er, paws is one thing that could happen.
Now, let me get back to my pipe….. 😀
Kay,
You could be right, Completely forgot about the red priestress audition – too many things going around this year.
i think the only news we have today is Girona will be Oldtown as well.
i got say its strange Bravos, KL, Oldtow at the same city, Girona is not a big city to have 3 big cityes of Got.
lets see…
Wimsey,
No. The show has already a more than established visual language for warging: POV shots from the warged-in direwolves.
Honestly, I think you are on the right track, just wrong about the specifics. And therein lies the answer to your question about what Arya’s story will be. Let’s review the facts: We know Arya will be blind, which is when she starts warging in the books, beyond the usual wolf dreams. We know Izembaro’s hilarious troupe will remind her of the crimes against her family. We know she will do something so outrageous to the Faceless Men that the Waif actually tries to murder her in broad daylight. And we know (through WOTW’s trusted sources and not direct evidence, granted) that Arya will end up in the Riverlands. It’s pretty clear to me. If I had to make a more explicit guess, I’d say Arya will keep trying to become “no one” and expectedly she will fail (we both agree on that, I believe.) The troupe and the warging will act as the counterbalance of the Faceless Man; they will remind her of who she is. My best guess is she will see something through warging that sends her on a mission to maybe kill someone or whatever in the Riverlands, puting an end to her failed experiment of becoming a faceless woman and embracing her true nature —”Kill No One and let the Stark wolf girl be born”?
Anguissette1979,
Thanks, Angie! Great job too. Easy links right after the cast name – for a lazy ass like me just perfect.
Moles town bastard,
I have to backtrack on what I said a tad bit. Ppl say that sopranos se2 was average, which I don’t agree with. I loved every 84 episodes. And GoT is right up there
Luka Nieto,
You are right that Bran’s warging was shown differently: my idea is premised on the possibility that they will show Arya’s warging differently because Arya is not as aware of her warging as Bran is. I would not be surprised if they also do this if only to leave the audience wondering for a little bit what exactly is happening with Arya: if it’s exactly what Bran is doing (and given that we might see a bit of Bran warging through all sorts of animals), then it will be a give away!
Now, your model makes sense, but it has one problem: how does Arya get from Essos to the middle of the Riverlands so quickly?
Incidentally, how do people know that Arya’s scenes were in the Riverlands? You mentioned that it was reported here (I missed that report), but in what uniquely Riverland place was she shown? Given that they use the same general areas for lots of different places in Westeros/Essos (and given that they use lots of general areas for the same places in Westeros/Essos), what gives it away?
This has come up with Jaime, too. People have assumed that his stuff in Iceland is going to be in the Riverlands, and it might be: but it also might be somewhere else, too.
As for “Kill No One and let the Stark Lady Be Reborn,” heh, that would be good! However, that also was last year’s story. For the first time, we do not know the story that they are trying to adapt. The early Winter chapters hint that it might be a story about choosing between equally desirable sides, but that is only a hint. (I have never benchmarked myself to see how successful I have been at figuring out what a story is after only 4 or 5 chapters! My guess: I call “pie” and it is some sort of dessert, but not necessarily a pie, if that makes sense…..)
Wimsey,
How does Arya get from “Essos” to the middle of the Riverlands “so quickly”? Huh? Yeah, she’s in “Essos”, but not exactly in Vaes Dothrak, is she? She is in the most major, northwesternmost Essosi port —the most used for the Westerosi, in fact. Also, she can have an episode off for the travel across the Narrow Sea, if you really want (not needed; time passes between scenes, and even more between episodes, usually). I think you’re just finding inexistent problems with the fact reported by WOTW that Arya will be in the Riverlands at the end of next season. Just because it doesn’t correlate to your previous assumptions doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have accepted it by now.
As for the Jaime Lannister and Arya reports, they were inside scoops, not sightings. Maybe what’s why you are still clinging to the idea, thinking we might have misunderstood? These weren’t furtive photos taken by fans, but inside scoops from WOTW’s sources. You missed both of them, apparently… despite the fact that you commented on the article. Both Jaime and Arya will go to the Riverlands. We even have details for Jaime; he’ll go with Bronn.