At last, HBO has released a trailer featuring actual footage from the upcoming third season of the epic fantasy series Game of Thrones. Was it worth the wait? Although it’s merely a 60-second spot, the answer is a resounding yes.
Flying dragons. Fire. Dick Joffrey (“Everyone is mine to torment.”). Sexy Daenerys (with her very own army?). A grown up Bran Stark weilding a mighty bow-and-arrow. Our favorite Imp.
Game of Thrones is back March 31. And because I know you want the pulse-pounding background track I’ll save you the trip: it’s “Bones” by MS MR available at iTunes.
Night gathers, and now my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall wear no crowns and win no glory. I shall live and die at my post. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I am the shield that guards the realms of men. I pledge my life and honor to the Night’s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.
That, my friends, is the Night’s Watch oath. It is required to be recited by those who give up their lives to join the Night’s Watch, a military force that guards the enormous Wall and serves to protect the people of the Seven Kingdoms from the mysteriousness that lives beyond it. The Watch and its oath were invented by author George R.R. Martin, the man behind A Song of Ice and Fire, a collection of fantasy novels that inspired the critically acclaimed HBO series Game of Thrones. In the show we’ve been introduced to the Night’s Watch and even witnessed Jon Snow, the bastard of Winterfell, be inducted into the cold group.
As we get closer to the third season premiere of Game of Thrones, HBO is promoting the series with a fun, interactive way to feel like you’re part of it all. At mywatchbegins.com you can hit record and recite the Night’s Watch oath along with Lord Snow as the words pass on the screen, karaoke style. Then you can hear it back and share the awesomeness with your friends. (Here’s my recording!) Though there really isn’t much to it, hearing your echo behind Snow’s oath…it’s epic and empowering.
Before you get started, watch the clip above to get reacquainted with the oath. Game of Thrones returns March 31.
As we sprint toward spring the next season of Game of Thrones looms on the horizon. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at season 3 with commentary by the cast and the producers. “This is the rise and fall season because there are so many characters who come into the season with power of some kind who lose everything, and other characters who enter with almost nothing and achieve great power,” says executive producer David Benioff. “It’s still very much about power and very much about family,” adds Benioff partner D.B. Weiss. “I also think that this is a season of tremendous reversals of fortune. I think you will be pleasantly surprised and horrified in equal measure.” Star Peter Dinklage says, “The show keeps expanding and breathing more deeply.”
Game of Thrones returns March 31 at 10PM on HBO.
Update (1/25): HBO has released a slew of cast photos from the upcoming season. See new faces and old in the gallery below.
Don’t expect to see any new footage from the third season of HBO’s fantasy series in this recently released teaser for Game of Thrones. Still, it is intriguing nonetheless. It features the three-eyed raven from Bran’s dreams flying over a modern cityscape. Pretty sure this has nothing to do what unfolds in the story. I haven’t read the books but I don’t think we’ll be seeing the Starks and the Lannisters discovering a portal to 2013. “Their world returns to ours” is what the promo is trying to say, meaning we will be transporting to Westeros soon when the series returns March 31. Allow “The Rains of Castamere” to soothe your soul and click play above.
March might not feel so close right now, but I’m about to make the wait a bit more bearable. Today EW broke news that the third season of Game of Thrones will feature longer episodes than ever before. Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff explain the situation thusly. “There’s almost another full episode’s worth of extra minutes spread across the season,” says Weiss. “One of the great liberties with HBO is we’re not forced to come in at a specific time. We can’t be under 50 minutes or over 60, but that gives us a lot of flexibility.” So what are we talking about exactly? “Last year we had a lot of 52-minute episodes. This year is a lot of 56, 57,” adds Benioff. This should come as a pleasant surprise for not only fans of the show but also the readers of the books on which the series is based. Season 3 plans to cover approximately the first half of George R.R. Martin’s thickest Song of Ice and Fire novel, A Storm of Swords. “A super-sized season, as befitting Storm of Swords,” Benioff exclaims. Additionally, EW reports that a jam-packed season 3 finale will likely exceed an hour in length provided HBO gives the fantasy series the go-ahead. In sum, though HBO still caps the episode count at 10 it will feel like there’s 11 when all is said and done. “So for people clamoring for another episode, it’s in there,” Weiss elaborates. “It’s just been cut into tiny pieces.”
It’s not an epic trailer, but here is our first look into the next season of Game of Thrones. The two minute clip takes you behind-the-scenes of production on the third season of HBO’s fantasy series based on a series of books by George R.R. Martin. In it you’ll hear from the series showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, as well as some of the cast including Richard Madden (Robb), Maisie Williams (Arya), and Emlia Clarke (Daenerys). Peter Dinklage also makes a brief appearance and you get to see how Tyrion’s permanent scar looks. With new locations, characters, and an upgraded wardrobe being introduced next year, the upcoming season of Thrones “is the season [we’ve] been anticipating from the very beginning,” says Benioff. Clarke will get your blood pumping with her closing remarks: “The game’s been upped. There’s so much more danger. There’s so much more risk.”
This official poster serves as a reminder that HBO’s fantasy series Game of Thrones returns for its third season on March 31, 2013.
Update (11/19): A promo teaser joins the promo poster after the jump. There is no actual footage from the upcoming season; what we get is this fiery and icy quote: “The great war is between death and life, ice and fire. If we lose, the night will never end.” Continue reading TV poster: ‘Game of Thrones’ season 3 [Update: promo teaser inside]→
Game of Thrones season two just ended last month so what better way to bide your time than by marking your calendars with the season three premiere date. Ready? Here it is: March 31, 2013.
Other than announcing this special day, the Game of Thrones panel at Comic Con moderated by author George R.R. Martin included a five-and-a-half minute recap of the epic second season and a brief introduction to (a whopping) 14 new characters we will be forced to know next season. The former video is embedded above while the latter one hangs after the break. Under that video there’s a listing of all the new characters explaining how they’re each tied to the ones we already know. Continue reading Comic Con 2012: ‘Game of Thrones’ season 3 lands a March 2013 premiere date, new cast members introduced→
No surprise here. Today HBO made it official that its highly rated and praised fantasy series Game of Thrones will return for a third season in 2013. Like the two seasons before it, the next one will also consist of ten episodes. What’s different, however, is that ten episodes isn’t enough time for the show to tell the entirety of A Storm of Swords, the third book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series. So the tale will be told over the course of two seasons–that is, if Thrones lives on to see a fourth season (and it most certainly will). Martin confirms on his blog that he will pen the script for season three episode seven already titled “Autumn Storms.”
HBO president Michael Lombardo commented on today’s not surprising but nevertheless great news. “Series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss raised our expectations for the second season – and then surpassed them. We are thrilled by all the viewer and media support we’ve received for the series, and can’t wait to see what Dan and David have in store for next season.”
Ten months, five trailers, numerous posters, and one 22-minute featurette later, HBO’s wildly popular fantasy series Game of Thrones is finally back. War is coming, friends, and the battle for the Iron Throne is already in progress. We return to the Starks and the Lannisters breathing down each other’s necks, Jon Snow leading the Night’s Watch beyond the Wall into supernatural territory, and Daenerys training her dragons. The season 2 opener is titled “The North Remembers” and it starts precisely tonight (4/1) at 9PM on HBO.
The gallery below contains some new posters hyping tonight’s must-see event. Warning: one contains a major season 1 spoiler, so if you haven’t caught up yet (what are you waiting for?!) don’t go digging just yet.
Update: The ratings are in and boy are they spectacular. So many more people tuned into the second season premiere of Game of Thrones compared to the first season. Here are the record-setting facts. A grand total of 3.9 million viewers tuned into “The North Remembers” at the 9PM hour; that’s up a significant 74 percent from the first season premiere. This is also the most watched episode of Thrones to date; it beat out the previous record holder, the season one finale “Fire and Blood” (that episode clocked in just over 3 million viewers). When you factor in all three airings from Sunday night, a grand total of 6.3 million viewers took in the premiere. HBO greenlighting season 3? Now it’s only a matter of time.
It’s become a yearly tradition over at ThinkGeek where they come up with bizarre and sometimes authentic products on April Fools Day. In 2010 they invented the Dharma Initiative Alarm Clock and ever since then LOST fans around the world have been yearning for it to exist. But alas, these products are introduced into the online marketplace on a particular pranky day and cannot be added to the cart.
This time around ThinkGeek is “selling” the Technomancer Digital Wizard Hoodie which promises to transform you into a powerful mage; a Star Wars Admiral Ackbar Singing Bass that plays the Cantina Song and says, “It’s a trap!”; Minecraft Marshmallow Creeps for Easter; the Barbie Digital Fashion Styling Head for iPad accessory that takes advantage of the Barbie CloudCastle Network; and then there’s the Game of Thrones Fire and Blood Perfume, “a scent based on Daenerys Targaryn…[an] alluring fragrance will make any woman feel like a Khaleesi.” Another fun one is Electronic Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad; the classic game returns by clipping on capacitive-padded hippo heads and your iPad is the board!
Head over to ThinkGeek to see all of these April Fools gags in impressively great detail.
