SDCC: The GAME OF THRONES Audition Tapes are Awesome

The Game of Thrones panel at Comic-Con wrapped up earlier, and it was fairly disappointing in terms of news. In previous years a video has been played where we meet all the new cast members for the next season, however there was none such this time; none of the writers even showed up! Nor did heavy hitters like Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) or Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister). When the guest list was announced fans expected a lackluster affair and that’s what we got.

Hey, don’t get me wrong, I love Maisie Williams as much as the next guy, but I wanted some actual news to break. The panel was instead focused more on questions from the audience and laughs, the laughs in particular rocking Hall H thanks to a video screened at the panel. Some poor HBO intern had edited together the original audition tapes for several cast members with footage from when the scenes actually appeared on the show. Some of them are pretty unique and cool – Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane) eating a carrot and then spitting it out, for example, as well as Carice Van Houten (Melisandre) dropping an F-bomb. Check it out below…

Yeah, it’s a neat video, but I’m still kinda pissed off that there was nothing substantial which happened. When you spend hours queuing in line for a major panel like this you’d expect some sort of reward for it – not stuff which you can all just read about or watch at home. Overall, a disappointing event (at least it’s fitting with this year’s season).

Game of Thrones is back… well, I don’t know. Some time next spring. Before that, though, keep checking back to UTF for the eventual release of that pesky casting video!