Courtesy of HBO
It's a Stark family reunion on the set of HBO's seventh season of 'Thrones.'
[Warning: This story contains possible spoilers for the seventh season of Game of Thrones.]
Following the show's season six finale, Game of Thrones is finally poised to bring its disparate plot threads into one tightly bound knot.
It's not just that Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) has cleaned house against her enemies, accepting the crown and Iron Throne of Westeros after solving King's Landing's Faith Militant problem in a ferocious blast of wildfire. (No need to bring up her final child's death; still a sensitive subject.) It's not just that Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) is finally, at long last, sailing for the Seven Kingdoms, either, nor is it the ever looming threat of the White Walkers breaching the Wall. It's all of these things and more, as Thrones gears up for its final stretch of episodes — including a virtually confirmed reunion between characters who have not seen one another since season one.
Read on for more details, plus more from the week in Game of Thrones.
** Bran and Arya Stark have not crossed paths on screen since the earliest days of the show. Back then, poor Bran was paralyzed and unconscious following his fall from the tower of Winterfell, while Arya was gearing up for a cross-country trek to King's Landing. Will the two characters meet in season seven? There's reason to think so, according to photos collected by and posted on Watchers on the Wall, which see actors Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead-Wright on set at the same time. It's not clear that the two shot scenes together, but it's not a massive leap to expect them to reunite, given that Arya is back in Westeros as of the season six finale, and Bran is well on his way.
** Even if she hasn't yet reunited with Bran, perhaps Arya is about to join forces with other members of her family. The same photos feature Williams wearing traditional Northern garb, taken on the same day that Kit Harington and others from the Winterfell story were on set. Does that mean Arya's murder rampage against her remaining enemies has quieted down, and she's decided to join her sister Sansa and half-brother Jon in the North instead? If so, expect that reunion to put the Jon-Sansa hug to shame.
** It deserves mentioning on its own that in these set photos, another popular Game of Thrones star can be seen in costume: Bella Ramsey, the young actress who plays Lyanna Mormont, the bitter-cold Lady of Bear Island. It's no shock that Lyanna is back in the mix, considering her status as the decisive breakout character of season six, but it's still worth pumping a fist or two over the news.
** Looking away from the present of Game of Thrones and toward the show's past, the late wicked boy king Joffrey Baratheon himself made an appearance at New York Comic-Con last weekend. There, actor Jack Gleeson shared stories about his acting career, including an unfortunate bladder experience while shooting a different dragon-studded story altogether, Christian Bale's Reign of Fire. He also posited a compelling theory about the show's end-game: "[Someone's] going to melt down the Iron Throne because it has the Valyrian steel that will overcome the White Walkers. I think that's kind of a cool idea — the monarchy is literally dissolved."
** Finally, if you're one of the man fans who still misses Jon Snow's deceased girlfriend Ygritte (Rose Leslie), there's some good news. The star has been cast in the upcoming Good Wife spinoff on CBS All Access in a series regular role, playing a character named Maia, fresh off the bar exam and newly employed by Diane Lockhart's (Christine Baranski) firm.
Watch our season seven predictions in the video below:
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