‘Game Of Thrones’ Comic-Con Panel Teases What’s Ahead

Winter has arrived in Westeros and its winds blew through Comic-Con Friday afternoon as HBO‘s Game of Thrones panel rocked Hall H for its annual panel. Moderated by Rob McElhenney of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the panel included John Bradley, Liam Cunningham, Nathalie Emmanuel, Conleth Hill, Faye Marsay, Hannah Murray, Kristian Nairn, Iwan Rheon, Miguel Sapochnik, Sophie Turner and Isaac Hempstead Wright alongside David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Around 5:30 p.m. PST, Turner made everyone take a shot of vodka and then the panel began.

Benioff and Weiss are good friends with McElhenney and the rest of the It’s Always Sunny cast; they penned an episode of the show during season 9 in 2013. McElhenney, who guested on another zeitgeist genre drama Lost, joked his Thrones‘ role keeps getting cut season after season, then showed a funny video of his “cut” character spliced into random scenes. McElhenney repeatedly asks “When is winter coming?” and Charlie Day also cameos in the video.

The Game of Thrones showrunners reminded the audience that the upcoming seventh season is the penultimate one, reiterating it will consist of seven episodes and debut next summer.

Game of Thrones lost many regular and recurring stars in season 6, including Nairn’s lovable and monosyllabic gentle giant Hodor and Rheon’s outrageously evil Ramsay Bolton (“How did you create such a lovable scamp and how does it feel to have become America’s sweetheart?” McElhenney joked).

Nairn, still rapt by the fan response to his departure from two months ago, noting that all the doorstops in his San Diego hotel were labeled “Hodor.”

Director Miguel Sapochnik, who received near-universal acclaim for his work on the final two episodes “Battle of the Bastards” and “The Winds of Winter,” will not return for season 7, as directors were already announced, but said he hopes to return for the final season.

Other tidbits:

• Liam Cunningham (Davos) gave Princess Shireen’s wooden stag prop to his daughter
• John Bradley’s ideal death for his character Sam is to fall from a ladder in the Oldtown library and get crushed by falling shelves and books
• Sophie Turner made light of Sansa’s out-of-character decision not to inform Jon of the Knights of the Vale prior to the battle against Ramsay, saying her character wanted all the credit and it made for better television.
• She said she could see her character becoming a proper ruler or devolving into a sadist now that she got a taste for bloody vengeance by killing Ramsay (the funniest scene she’s filmed, according to her). She also predicts her character is conflicted over Jon’s crowning as King in the North.
• Isaac Hempstead-Wright assumes Bran’s knowledge of Jon’s parental lineage – learned in the finale – means he will be the one to tell him about it, though he isn’t sure when, how or in what order he’ll tell him “‘I’m a Tree Wizard and your dad isn’t your dad.'”

Before audience questions, they were all asked who they wanted to sit the Iron Throne by the end of the show. Most of the panel chimed in.

• Sapochnik: Share it!
• Cunningham: A White Walker w/ a cuban cigar
• Bradley: Jon out of loyalty
• Emmanuel: Dany for same reason
• Hill joked that he knows but can’t say
• Turner: Littlefinger for “fun, quirky and sadistic” reasons
• Rheon: Melt it and begin democracy
• Marsay: Arya
• Nairn: The best theorist of the bunch says the Iron Throne probably won’t exist by the end of the show (but he’d like to see Brienne).

The panel finished for a pre-production tease from Game of Thrones season 7, effectively making a trailer out of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the show. They also released the season 6 blooper reel! Check out both below and stay tuned for more Comic-Con coverage!

Source: TVLine