Benioff and Weiss to get honorary degrees, shots of Finn Jones in his new role, and more

It looks like D&D will now be Drs D&D. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are set to receive Doctorates of Fine Arts from Ulster University in Northern Ireland, for distinguished services to the arts. (Much of Game of Thrones is filmed in Northern Ireland). The showrunners will be awarded their degrees in an autumn ceremony, assuming they can break away from filming Season 7.

UU Vice-Chancellor Prof Paddy Nixon said that “[o]ur honorary degree recipients not only represent the diversity of the sectors in which our graduates are employed, they represent the determination, confidence, talent and creativity which we know our students can and will emulate as they progress in their chosen careers.” Good on Benioff and Weiss, then. There’s no word from the pair about their new degrees, but maybe their plates are kind of full at the moment.

Switching over to the Game of Thrones cast members, Entertainment Weekly has an update about the rumor that Maisie Williams may make like her onscreen sister Sophie Turner and become an X-Man. A few weeks ago, we reported that Williams might join the cast of the upcoming X-Men spinoff The New Mutants. Now, Williams has weighed in.

"I can’t say much about it at all, but I would absolutely love to be a part of it, [and] to be a part of the Marvel family. New Mutants looks absolutely incredible and I’ve always loved the idea of spin-offs and [director] Joshua Boone is incredibly talented. So, yeah, sign me up."

Sign me up indeed. The X-Men films are the exception to the rule that non-Disney produced Marvel properties can be box office and critical successes. And if New Mutants was profitable, Williams role in it could be recurring. Williams is reportedly up for the role of Wolfsbane, a Scottish teenager who can morph into a werewolf. Doesn’t sound like much of a stretch for our favorite Stark daughter, does it?

Maisie Williams isn’t the only Game of Thrones cast member joining the Marvel family. Finn Jones (Ser Loras Tyrell) will be portraying superhero Iron Fist in a new Marvel Netflix series of the same name. And now we have our first look at the heavily bearded and somewhat homeless-looking hero, above. Along with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, Marvel Netflix series’ have become hot properties, so it was somewhat of a coup when Jones was cast as Danny Rand, a martial arts-using superhero able to summon a mystical force dubbed the Iron Fist as he battles crime and evil on the mean streets of New York.

Jessica Henwick (Nymeria Sand) will also have a recurring role on the series, as Danny Rand’s ally Colleen Wing. But what does Finn’s casting mean for Ser Loras? If Jones is playing the lead on another series, will he have time to film Thrones, and if not, does that mean Loras is dying soon? Here’s hoping doesn’t happen. (No cares if Nymeria Sand lives or dies. Sorry, Jessica.)

An official release date has yet to be set for Iron Fist, but we can probably expect to see it sometime in the Spring of 2017.

h/t BBC News, The Independent