Ian McShane Joining ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season Six
Having starred in the western seriesDeadwood,Ian McShaneis no stranger to stirring up trouble on HBO. And now he’ll return to the cable network, this time for their insanely popular fantasy seriesGame of Thrones.
The actor who taught Nick Frost how to dance inCuban Fury, fought Andy Samberg inHot Rodand gave Captain Jack Sparrow some grief inPirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tidesis heading to the sixth season ofGame of Thrones, currently in production overseas in Ireland. Find out more about Ian McShane joiningGame of Thronesafter the jump!
Entertainment Weeklyhas the news on McShane joining the ensemble cast ofGame of Thrones, but unfortunately, and word on his character is being kept under wraps. The only thing the magazine was able to find out is that he’ll have a “relatively small amount of screen-time during the season,” but his character still has a pivotal role.
Sadly, fans who have read the book won’t even be able to figure out who McShane might be playing in this forthcoming season, because the show is now heading into uncharted territory that author George R.R. Martin’s books have not yet revealed. Therefore fans could be looking at having future books spoiled (though there have been some significant changes made from the books to the TV show before).
McShane become a more recognizable face on American television afterDeadwood, so it’s cool to see him returning to HBO. Most recently he was hanging out over at Showtime with an arc onRay Donovan. He’s also a rare casting move forGame of Thrones, which has opted to mostly cast sparsely-known talent as opposed to well-known actors. Sean Bean, Lena Headey, Charles Dance and Peter Dinklage were probably the best known actors cast in the show’s beginning. But now they’re all very recognizable thanks to the popularity of the show.
In fact, that has caused some problems for the future of the show after the most recent season finale. That’s because fans have spottedKit Harington, who plays Jon Snow on the show, making frequent trips to Belfast for production meetings and table reads, implying that his character is likely not permanently dead. Is there any chance McShane will have anything to do with the future fate of Jon Snow? We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Game of Thronesis currently in production and will return with another 10 episodes sometime in the spring of 2016. Just recently we heard that the network iscurrently planning on eight seasons of the show, giving a little more time for the series to flesh out than was previously planned. And let’s not forget that aGame of Thronesprequel seriesandeven a feature film may be in the cardssometime down the road as well.
