Fresh off the news that HBO?s hit fantasy drama series Game of Thrones has begun filming its seventh (and penultimate) season, fans of the successful TV series have heard plenty of rumors regarding what?s soon to come in Westeros. Slated to conclude after seasons 8, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are going to be letting the show get ?very dark before it gets better,? as series costar Kit Harington (who plays Jon Snow) has put it.
Ahead the release of season 7 on HBO, Game of Thrones fans have been offered plenty of tantilizing bits of information regarding which characters will be making appearances in the upcoming season. While rumors that Jason Mamoa will reprise his role from season 1 as Khal Drogo may be little more than rumors, Jim Broadbent (Harry Potter) is reported to have signed to play a ?significant? role in season 7. Of course, not everyone who has been rumored to appear in season 7 will, in fact, do so.
According to EW, acclaimed British actress Anglea Lansbury (Murder, She Wrote) will not be playing the part of a ?minor? Game of Thrones character after all. Stemming from an original article published online by the German tabloid newspaper Bild over the Labor Day weekend, the rumor mill had been churning under the very idea that Lansbury might be lending her talents to the wildly beloved fantasy series on HBO. But as Lansbury?s official representatives have now made perfectly clear, the British dame will not be joining program newcomer Jim Broadbent in season 7 in any form or capacity.
It?s undoubtedly disappointing for many who might have already begun imaging various narrative scenarios in which Lansbury might have made an appearance on season 7 of Game of Thrones, but it would appear that such idle daydreams were all for nought. Then again, perhaps given the amount of excitement such a casting decision has generated already, maybe Lansbury will consider appearing on the show in some role or form for its final season in 2018.
Lansbury would have made for a remarkable addition to the already stellar cast of Game of Thrones, but for now viewers of the fantasy series will just have to make do with Broadbent?s forthcoming, and presumably illustrious, entrance. Benioff and Weiss have yet to steer viewers very far wrong in the past, and with any luck seasons 7 and 8 will prove to be a thrilling and satisfying conclusion to the show (with or without the presence of Angela Lansbury).
Game of Thrones returns for season 7 on HBO in the summer of 2017.
