We have some exclusive casting news for you, the House Gatewatch faithful. British actor Patrick Malahide has been cast as Lord Balon Greyjoy.
Balon Greyjoy is the head of House Greyjoy and father to Theon and Yara. He rules the Iron Islands and is a hard and fierce leader. He plays a small but pivotal role in season two. Malahide is a British character actor with dozens of roles on both the small and big screens. He has had appearances in films such as The World Is Not Enough, Billy Elliott, and Quills. On television he starred in the early 90s TV series The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries and more recently appeared in the HBO mini-series Elizabeth I and the BBC sci-fi show Survivors.
Winter Is Coming: And another piece of the casting puzzle falls into place… slowly but surely we are getting this cast filled out. This probably completes the casting for Ironborn speaking roles this season as it looks like Aeron and Victarion will be shuffled off to later seasons. Malahide looks to be a solid choice for the role, being an experienced character actor and one that tends to play the villainous roles. Balon isn’t a villain per se, but he definitely has an edge to him. As a Greyjoy fanboy, I approve of this casting.
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56 Comments
I adore this !!!!
ObsidianQuote Reply
Yep. Gaunt. Asshole. Proud. Theon’s loser-in-denial dad. I see it! Looking good HBO.
Franny BeeQuote Reply
I adore this man. He was brilliant and so heart-breaking in Five Days.
cyloncapricaQuote Reply
He certainly looks hard enough to be Balon Greyjoy! I have seen both The World Is Not Enough and Billy Elliot but can’t remember his roles in either. That’s just my sieve of a brain though.
BroQuote Reply
Krakken for the win!!
:D
Julian WalkerQuote Reply
Great choice. That look on the picture above fits Balon to a T.
VagabondQuote Reply
Oh, that is so AWESOME! And it’s so good to finally get some real casting news.
I’ve seen Malahide in a couple of things and he is a great choice!
Josh ParkerQuote Reply
Faboosh. Now Ygritte pleeez hbo
OhWhoCaresQuote Reply
I know I’d squirm if he asked me what price I paid for my accessories. ;)
ObsidianQuote Reply
He looks the part, perfect for my father-in-law-to-be.
PacoQuote Reply
Paco,
So, you’re into Polygamy , then ?..:)
ObsidianQuote Reply
Another Greyjoy fanboy here.
The Drowned God will be pleased with this casting.
Alexander DubrovskyQuote Reply
No Johnny Phillips eh,?
Oh well, I will be looking forward to Daddy Greyjoy and his brothers as well!!!
Butter BeanQuote Reply
Obsidian,
lol Sharing is caring, after all. =’D
PacoQuote Reply
Looks good from the picture. And I would expect the person playing Balon to have a background in villainy, not because I’m expecting him to be portrayed as a villain, but just because the kind of people who play the strict, ambitious authoritarian ruling by might and violent charisma usually end up with villain roles.
world_dancerQuote Reply
He looks great for the part, and he must have had a great audition to beat out Johnny Phillips.
Johan SporreQuote Reply
He definitely looks very Balon-y.
JustinQuote Reply
another ‘into the storm’ alum….we have ser jorah, craster, greatjon, and now balon all from one little HBO movie.
austin_sleepQuote Reply
Great look about him, Unfimilar with his work, but I will be caught up very soon!
SuperdeluxeQuote Reply
Love him but doesn’t he look like the guy who plays Roose Bolton ? Put him some hair, make the difference^^
LLQuote Reply
Great! They must be having a hard time choosing the remaining characters or else they at the same time they want some suspense? haha who knows…
Igor VelosoQuote Reply
He has a great Balon face.
Delta1212Quote Reply
He looks like my asha:
http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-57178/gallery/?view=71800
:(
JerichoQuote Reply
That’s cool, Balon only had like three ‘scenes’ in the books right? Meeting Theon, a party where Asha/Yara reveals herself and a war council of sorts.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
don’t YOU dare try to marry theon! He’s MINE u.u
I’m going to blackfish all the same. Where the heck is my ygritte?
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
I’ve calmed down about Ygritte, I know they’ll cast her, but they don’t really have to cast her into later in the season. I’m really worried about the Reeds now.
knowsomethingQuote Reply
Fantastic! Loved his Walsingham in HBO’s Elizabeth I. Can’t wait for his dressing down of Theon. The Lord Reaper of Pyke indeed!
Josh AtreidesQuote Reply
Interesting how they went for a clear familial likeness for all the Greyjoys: the oval of the face, rounded features, a bit of fleshiness (to borrow from GRRM’s vocabulary). Here it’s visible too, but with more of a hard, weathered edge to it.
Not necessarily how I imagined Greyjoys while reading, but the casting is remarkable in how consistent it is: they could all really be a family.
OTOH, they could have just cast the entire Allen family – Keith is as Viking as it gets.
IdaanQuote Reply
knowsomething,
I have a sneaking suspicion, and here’s hoping I’m wrong, that the Reeds’ place will be filled by Osha. Ygritte could get bumped to next season. These are my doom and gloom predictions. Still, they did such a wonderful job with season one I have a lot of hope for the quality of season two.
NoxAeturnusQuote Reply
Apparently they’ve cast Pod too.
AnonymousQuote Reply
NoxAeturnus,
I read the books because I loved the tv series, so no complaints about quality from me. I just think there are things that the Reeds bring that Osha can’t. Mainly their connection to the past. I suppose Osha can talk about what she’s heard about warging and greenseeing, but I think there’s a difference between telling a story like Old Nan and actually demonstrating the ability like Jojen did.
Anonymous, where did you hear Pod was cast?
knowsomethingQuote Reply
I know someone whose friend was up for the part, he didn’t get it and was told it had been cast.
AnonymousQuote Reply
Just on my way out to catch a movie, but based on that picture alone and Winter’s short summary of his curriculum, that seems like another GREAT casting indeed!
Tar KidhoQuote Reply
Grim, hard look… awesome! Love it!
SteveQuote Reply
I like the casting though I haven’t seen much of him. My imagining of Balon was Bill Nighy (Victor) alla Underworld, and Paltrick Malahide seems to give off that same old school, revenge will be mine, you want to impress me type of vibe.
(I hope this comment makes sense.)
SJGIMQuote Reply
SJGIM,
You’ve told exactly what I was thinking.
I know, that budget of the series is limited and I know that these limited money would rather be spent on CGI or extras, but I’d love to see some first league actor (with all due respect to Mr. Malahide, I know nothing about him), even in small role. Bill Nighy as Balon Greyjoy’s would satisfy my apetite for Hollywood.
GrzebykKQuote Reply
Like this Alot
They need to move up the start of the season to September 25
just be careful on the bridges in Pike buddy
Nimble DickQuote Reply
So Westeros says Pyat Pree has been cast as well. Ian Hanmore.
http://www.westeros.org/GoT/News/Entry/New_Casting_Pyat_Pree_and_Balon_Greyjoy/
OhDanyBoyQuote Reply
They also say Pod has been cast:
ADDENDUM: Access Hollywood has just revealed that Podrick Payne has been cast, played by young (Scottish?) actor Daniel Portman. As the article notes, Podrick (or Pod, as he’s often known) appears briefly in the first novel as a young squire assigned to Tyrion Lannister, but did not appear in the first season of the show. Also as noted, Podrick is a young boy whereas it appears Portman is well into his teens.
C2Quote Reply
Access Hollywood says Daniel Portman is Podrick Payne. Never heard of him, personally. Googling brings up a musician of some kind.
GaRQuote Reply
OhDanyBoy,
and Ian Hanmore is white, so the ethnicity of the Qartheen in general remains a mystery.
I look forward to further arguments about race.
GaRQuote Reply
i’ll ask it here to: why pretty much everybody blames pod? xD i mean, how did it start?
Elena AmiciQuote Reply
dizzy_34,
I don’t recall him having that many scenes (I think you have them all), but I expect they’ll expand it a little to emphasize how out of place Theon is. And also to set up Aeron, Eureon, and Victarion if they’re not in it.
world_dancerQuote Reply
Elena Amici,
blames him for what? o_O
Pod is awesome. He saves Tyrion’s life on the bridge of boats and nails Shagwell in the head with a rock, allowing Brienne to gut him like the animal he is.
GaRQuote Reply
world_dancer,
Well now that I think about it the war council could have been a Theon recolection or something. I’m sure they have to have a scene where Balon tells Theon that he’s relegated to reaving the Stoney Shore with a small fleet while Asha gets to command a larger attack.
dizzy_34Quote Reply
Excellent choice! He’s a good villain–or, at least, good at being villainous. He’s usually more patrician than rough-hewn, from what I recall, but I’m sure he’ll do great.
Richard WeetabixQuote Reply
Great news! Another fine actor added to what is shaping out to be a fine gathering of talent….
loco73Quote Reply
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtyY7siYBlQ
Here’s a young Patrick Malahide playing Arthur Daley’s nemesis in Minder… :)
Pippo La BrecheQuote Reply
I was really beginning to wonder why they hadn’t announced more Greyjoy castings. Considering how important Theon becomes in season 2 and the fact that the series will move to the Iron Islands for parts of the season, I thought Aeron and Victarion would also be cast. Balon is arguably the most important male (aside from Theon) Greyjoy to the story of A Clash of Kings, and I’m thrilled that Ash—Yara will be part of the season. Mr. Malahide looks great for the part.
DreamlifeQuote Reply
Johan Sporre,
That was exactly my thought when I saw the casting. Philips was great but probably this guy was even more great – which is great!^^
Off-Topic:
I tryed to post something on the “Podrick Payne and Pyat Pree cast”-thread, but it dosen’t show up. Any ideas why?
AbyssQuote Reply
What is dead can never die, but rises again harder & stronger.
He certainly has the look I’d imagined for Balon…
NewJeffCTQuote Reply
For some reason it got caught by the spam filter. I approved it so it should be showing up now though. Sorry about that!
Winter Is ComingQuote Reply
Winter Is Coming,
Thanks Winter! – Spam filters can be strange sometimes…
AbyssQuote Reply
woohooo
that’s him!!
Queen SnakeQuote Reply
I´m not a Greyjoy fan but this actor is great and looks the part, no doubt.
andreaQuote Reply
I expected them to change his name because it sounded too much like Balon Swann.
JensQuote Reply
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