I wish I could tell you who will be playing Maester Luwin, Grand Maester Pycelle, the Hound, Ser Rodrik, Khal Drogo, Magister Illyrio, Gared, Will, Ser Waymar Royce, and Cersei Lannister… but those parts have not been cast yet, to the best of my knowledge.

A number of other parts have not been cast yet either. That list is by no means exhaustive.

We do have some great contenders, though, and of course I have my own favorites. A few of these might be filled by the end of the day tomorrow. Or not.

At this writing, the secret seven is still the secret seven.

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/>Music: Lovin’ Spoonful
… no news.

No announcements from HBO yet. Sorry, I have no idea when they will release the names of the six actors cast but not announced. Soon, I hope. I know the speculation has driven many of you quite mad.

Things are progressing, though. The production offices have opened in Belfast, and soon pre-production will be underway in earnest. We have had a postponement, though: filming will start two weeks later than previously announced, on October 26 rather than October 12. No big thing, just a tweak to allow David and Dan and the rest of the gang to get all the ducks in a row. On a project of this size, you can’t have crooked ducks.

I expect to hear that several more roles have been filled by week’s end. Though that doesn’t mean I will be able to tell you who has filled them. Sorry.

Having worked in television myself for ten years, I understand how tough the choices can be sometimes, and I understand what David and Dan and Tom McCarthy are going through:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK87ejPDZOk

So all I can say is… be patient, and all shall be revealed.

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Ooops. Just realized, I screwed up one of my clues. That was Juliet’s line, not Romeo’s.

Time to reread my Shakespeare, I guess.

Sorry about that.

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/>Music: Alright, Still
I know, I know. Still no announcement from HBO, alas, and I can’t say when and if it will be coming. I know that many of you are going mad with impatience. Me too, actually. Sure, I know who has been cast, but I’m dying to see the reactions.

But we’re all going to have to wait. HBO calls the tune. And while we have six roles filled but yet announced, others of equal importance still remain unfilled. HBO may very well be waiting until some of those pieces fall into place before making the next announcement.

Meanwhile, some of you are warm and some are very cold. One of my clues seems to have been puzzled out by many of you, so I will fess up and admit that you’re correct — yes, the line about “small but important” roles refers to two of the children. You will, alas, never get those two. Even if I told you their names, you’d never find ’em. They’re not on IMDB, and when you google ’em you get dozens of listings for other people who share their names, but none for the child actors. So they’re essentially unknowns… but I have seen their readings, and I think that both of them will be great.

That still leaves four adults you can try to figure out, though. And among the hundreds of theories and guesses, I’ve seen a couple of you getting it right… or coming close, riding the right theory to the wrong conclusion. So keep at it.

In the absence of an announcement, I’ll give you a few more clues. One cast member was played by a puppet. Another has been seen wandering a castle exclaiming about roses. A third is too good to be true. The fourth is the fifth. Esquire thinks one of them is hot.

‘Nuff said.

And while you guys are chewing on those, off in London and New York and LA and Dublin, casting continues. They’re reading for some smaller parts now: Gared, Ser Rodrik, Maester Luwin, and the like. Even for these “lesser” roles (you know the old chestnut, there are no small roles, only small actors), we’re seeing some great readings. David, Dan, and Tom are going to have some tough decisions to make. Me, I’m going out for coffee and a danish.

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