So far, we’ve gotten a lot of information about the currently-shooting season 3 of the hit HBO show Game of Thrones. This includes new characters and cast members as well as a premiere date, but what we hadn’t seen as of yet was an official look at the new season.
Today, thanks to Comic Book Movie, that has finally changed as HBO has released the first official still from season 3. It’s not much, in fact, it’s rather hard to tell what character is even in the shot. From the image alone, I would guess it was Snow, but last we saw, he was still way north of The Wall.
However, along with this photo comes a description of a large battle scene that was shot in Ireland recently. It reads as follows:
It was an important rehearsal, and the two main protagonists are two of my season favorites: an unexpected pairing, whose war of words is almost as full-on as the fight. This struggle has been choreographed and rehearsed for weeks, with each move carefully placed to match the terrain. The fighters wore pads and fell on crash matts, though for the close-ups later in the week, during the first night shoot of the season, the landing would not be quite so comfortable. It will be a character-defining scene, for more than one who is involved, so it has to be done well.
More departments began to arrive for a full run-through. VFX was involved in creating the final moments of the scene, and special effects had a lot to do to make it all work. Armoury had designed a special weapon for this scene alone, and there was a nervous moment when it was first tested against the wood of a massive tree stump and the body of one of our brave stunt guys.
If the description does indeed match the photo, we could be looking at the back of one of the combatants. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve never read any of the George R.R. Martin novels (something I’ve been meaning to rectify), so I can’t begin to tell you who is involved in the scene, but it certainly sounds like it’ll be a good one.
I, like millions of others, am highly anticipating Game of Thrones‘ return to TV. The first two seasons were some of the best television to hit the airwaves in a long time, merely leaving its viewers wanting more.
We’ll finally get our chance to return to Westeros when season 3, based on the first half of Martin’s A Storm of Swords, premieres on March 31st, 2013.
