In five days (January 29th), the first official trailer for Game of Thrones Season 5, will be shown in all its IMAX glory. For me, the anticipation that has been slowly building since that official announcement, has been palpable to say the least.

With that in mind, I’ve gone back through the Game of Thrones YouTube channel and re-watched each season’s trailer, with the thought of ranking each one…and it’s not as easy as one might imagine.

See how I rank each trailer after the jump

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The talented Thrones cast continue to spread their wings and fly, and this week has provided even more news on the “what are they up to now?” front.

First off, the Sean Bean-headed ITV crime drama series Frankenstein Chronicles will feature an ensemble cast that includes Kate Dickie, known to us as Lady Lysa Arryn of the Vale. The series is set in 1827 and stars Bean as one Insepctor John Marlott who discovers a corpse that fits the description of Frankenstein’s monster–in case the title didn’t give it away, this series is indeed a period drama reimagining of Mary Shelley’s seminal sci-fi classic Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus. (Also, one hopes Ned Stark’s investigative skills are a little faster and sharper here than they were in Westeros.) Filming starts January 26th; the series will air on ITV Encore, ITV’s new subscription channel service, though no official start date has been announced yet.

Meanwhile, Daario Naharis’s journey for Daenerys Stormborn’s heart may be taking him to new and exciting places with another Thrones queen…

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One of the most impressive aspects of Game of Thrones is its use of a wide range of locales to double for George R.R. Martin’s sweeping fictional landscapes. But it appears that the show almost chose to film in Scotland instead of Northern Ireland.

So what exactly happened? Well, according to Drew McFarlane of Equity Scotland (an entertainment industry trade union), the producers were scared off by “a lack of infrastructure” pertaining to Scotland’s ability to handle large-scale film productions. Specifically, the artistic and economic branches of the Scottish government, Creative Scotland and Scottish Enterprise, were not cooperating to help bring film and television productions to the country, leading the show to ultimately pick Northern Ireland–with the very stable Northern Ireland Screen providing many filming incentives–instead.

More after the jump…

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X-Men: Apocalypse Sophie Turner cast as Jean Grey

Earlier this month we talked about the news that Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), might be portraying mutant Jean Grey in the next X-Men movie, X-Men: Apocalypse. At the time, there was no confirmation, and Sophie faced some pretty stiff competition from Hanna star, Saoirse Ronan.

Well, it seems that Fox and Bryan Singer has made their decision, and Sophie has been officially confirmed as the newest Jean Grey, via Singer’s Twitter account…..

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Well of course it’s snowy at The Wall…

Day 77: From the bottom of a quarry, our VFX supervisor looks up at the ridge above us and shakes his head. As we all shiver in 4°C shadow, he’s praying the sun won’t rise over the ridge and bathe us in its loving warmth. Because we have some serious VFX elements in this scene and shadows are much easier to match than light. For VFX, hell isn’t other people – it’s the sunlight on their faces.

Even though Dave Hill is coy about which Quarry they’re exactly in for this shot, the assumption is that this is a shot from filming in Magheramorne Quarry, which has doubled for Castle Black and The Wall. Even though the temperatures have fallen during this filming sequence, don’t be fooled–much of the “snow” we see was sprayed on.

What are they doing there? Our best ideas, after the jump….

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Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series “The Lost Lords”

Telltale Games has released the trailer for the 2nd episode in their Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series, entitled “The Lost Lords.” Telltale’s first episode in the six-part episodic game series, titled “Iron from Ice” was released in December of 2014.

Watch the trailer after the jump

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“Khaleesi is marrying Jack Sparrow!” Straight from Leslie Knope’s mouth, we now (sort of) know how Game of Thrones will end, and that it will end in 2017. This reference came during this week’s “Leslie and Ron” episode, one of the very last Parks and Recreation episodes ever (sadly).

With Game of Thrones becoming one of TV’s biggest cultural touchstones in a long while, it makes sense that other shows would want to reference it, in passing if nothing else. (As an example, if you’ve been watching ABC’s comedy musical Galavant, you may have noticed references to locations like Winterfell and Castle Black.) But Parks and Recreation, the optimistic little sister of NBC’s adaptation of The Office, has been ahead of the class in terms of Game of Thrones references, thanks in large part to Adam Scott’s Ben Wyatt, aka “TallTyrionLannister.”

Check out its best references after the jump….

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GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, announced the nominations for their 26th Annual GLAAD Media Awards. The awards “”recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives.” Thanks to increasing visibility for LGBT people in media, GLAAD has expanded their nominees from five to 10–and Game of Thrones is a beneficiary, getting a nod for “Outstanding Drama Series.”

But this was also Thrones‘ best season for LGBT representation…

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Maggy the Frog (art credit Matt Olson)

Back in October, we told you about D.B. Weiss and David Benioff announcing that Season 5 of Game of Thrones would have its first ever flashback scene. And, earlier this month, a new actress joined the Game of Thrones cast, specifically for that flashback. Now it seems the flashback has another key piece, as Jodhi May (Strike Back) has taken a role in Season 5.

Find out who she is after the jump, with some mild spoilers…

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The Game of Thrones PR machine is ramping up, and that’s not just in the US. The show premieres overseas on the Sky network of channels on April 13th, just a day after it airs here. Sky UK will be airing it in Denmark, the home country of  Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, our Jaime Lannister.

As part of the PR campaign for Season 5, Coster-Waldau recently appeared on the popular late night talk show Natholdet. (It translates roughly to “Night Shift.”) Coster-Waldau may have scored it big on US and UK TVs with Game of Thrones, but he’s not one of those actors who heads for the English speaking roles and never looks back. He still takes lots of roles overseas, including movies like A Thousand Times Good Night and Scandinavian based roles in his naive language, like the upcoming A Second Chance. It’s helped to make him a huge celebrity over there. Check out how excited the writers room gets when they find out he’s a guest on their show this week.

The video, which covers both his “Gold Hand Challenge” with the show’s host and the Writer’s Room Excitement, below. Don’t worry, there’s English subtitles.

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The Game of Thrones Season 5 premiere on April 12 is inching ever closer while the highly anticipated debut of the Season 5 trailer is just over a week away. The wait for me personally has been excruciating. However, thanks to Digital Spy, who got the exclusive international trailer for the soon to be released Game of Thrones: The Complete Fourth Season on Blu-ray and DVD, that wait has been made a little less painful.

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“Words are wind” is a common phrase in A Song of Ice and Fire, usually used to say “talk is cheap.” But that’s a view that underestimates both the power of words and wind themselves. In this “Words Are Wind” column, contributor Scott Andrews discusses some of the more important words in the world of Game of Thrones.

Tyrion: “I remember reading an old sailor’s proverb. Piss on wildfire and your cock burns off.”

Hallyne: “Oh, I have not conducted this experiment. It could well be true.”

When Bronn and Tyrion torched Stannis’s fleet with a green, castle-sized fireball in Season 2, it sure looked impressive. But in the Seven Kingdoms, wildfire is more than just a special effect. The substance has a long history in Westeros and actually played a pivotal role in the downfall of the Mad King. What is this deadly stuff?

Today, let’s take a closer look at wildfire–but not too close. It’ll burn your bits off….

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