In case you didn’t know already, I’m a fucking Game of Thrones nerd.  After the first season aired I read all the books, in part because I kept Googling characters and seeing how they died.  Well, I ended up getting hooked so I tried following the casting for Season 2.  Every time GRRM hinted a character was about to be cast, the Internet exploded with rumors about big names (ZOMG Gerard Butler as Stannis! was one such boomlet) and every time HBO cast a character actor who has acquitted himself admirably (the only character who really hasn’t worked onscreen has been Shae).

Now that we have a preliminary list of who HBO is looking for in Season 3, I’m seeing the same rumors where big name actors are attached to roles they’d never take in real life (Maggie Smith as the Queen of Thorns!  LIam Neeson as Mance Rayder!).  And it’s folly.  GoT will just find some other British character actor to fill every role, because nobody had an American accent in Westeros.

But there IS a way to predict which character actors will be cast in roles for Game of Thrones.  You see, back in 2009 when I was studying for the bar, there were two things I saw on HBO every night; The Dark Knight and Into the Storm.  Into the Storm is a decent British made-for-TV that’s kind of a “Churchill’s Greatest WWII Hits.”  Brendan Gleeson plays Churchill.  But when GoT started I knew Luwin looked familiar, and I realized that he played Lord Halifax.  Then I dug deeper and found that Jorah played King George, Craster played General Ismay and Balon Greyjoy was Major-General Montgomery.  I noted this on Warming Glow yesterday, and someone else pointed out that Renly and the Greatjon also had small roles in Into the Storm.

The IMDB page for Into the Storm indicates that it also shares a producer (Robert Doelger) with Game of Thrones, so maybe he’s behind all this.   Regardless, here are the Into the Storm actors that I predict will be cast in Game of Thrones:

Mance Rayder -Derrick Hagon (who was also Biggs in Star Wars!)

Daario Nahaaris - Nobody from Into the Storm is ethnic enough

Edmure Tully - James D’Arcy

The Blackfish - Jack Shepherd

Selyse Florent - Kathryn Summer

Shireen - Some child actor

The Queen of Thorns - Maggie Smith (ah fuck it, it’s perfect for her)

Beric Dondarrion - Ben Righton

Thoros of Myr - Some black dude because black = foreign on the show

Tormund Giantsbane - Bill Paterson

There you have it, my stone cold lock picks for Game of Thrones casting.  Call me, Vegas.