Last season, Game of Thrones guest star Ian McShane broke tradition by basically revealing his secret role ahead of time, and now one of the only confirmed cast members for season 7 has given more details on his character months before we’ll see him on screen.
Jim Broadbent’s casting was first announced last August in what was described as a “significant” role, but until now we only had theories about what that meant. In a new interview with ScreenCrush, Broadbent—who’s promoting The Series of an Ending—has revealed more information on who he’s playing after initially refusing to say anything.
“I’m a maester, an archmaester,” Broadbent said. “I’m an old professor character.”
Playing the “old professor” is a familiar casting for Broadbent, who previously portrayed Professor Horace Slughorn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. He didn’t give a name to ScreenCrush’s Erin Whitney, but he provided more about his Game of Thrones character. For one thing, he’s in scenes with John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), so we can infer that his character is located at the Citadel in Oldtown. And unlike McShane’s Brother Ray, who was only in one episode last season, we’ll be seeing much more of Broadbent.
“I did five episodes,” Broadbent added. “I did sort of one major scene in each episode.”
While “archmaester” certainly narrows the field of which character Broadbent will play, many fans have believed since August that he’ll be portraying Archmaester Marwyn, who Sam meets while at the Citadel. The last time we see Sam he’s waiting in the Citadel’s impressive library to speak to the archmaester (whose name isn’t specified).
In A Feast for Crows, Archmaester Marwyn meets with Sam soon after the latter arrives at the Citadel where Sam tells him that Maester Aemon believed Daenerys Targaryen was “The Prince That Was Promised.” Marwyn is introduced as a character who will believe Sam’s stories about dragons and white walkers and soon sets off to Meereen to be of service to Daenerys. How closely this will play out in the show compared to the books is yet to be seen, although it remains one of the few A Song of Ice and Fire plotlines yet to be included somehow in Game of Thrones.
The character, which many believe is included in a Game of Thrones casting sheet revealed last year under the description “Priest,” is described as a “venerable priest with moral authority and gravitas.” The character is in his 60’s and would require an actor with “characterful face.”
But will he also film scenes with Emilia Clarke this season? Broadbent’s word on shooting suggests no—or at least it probably won’t involve dragons; he shot his scenes at the main Game of Thrones studio in Belfast, Northern Ireland (instead of out on location), and it didn’t involve CGI.
H/T AV Club