Freddie Stroma cast as Dickon Tarly, Sam’s brother

At the end of Game of Thrones Season 5, Samwell Tarly left the Wall for Oldtown, where he intends to train as a maester. Sam’s family happens to live near Oldtown, and many fans have speculated that we’ll meet them in Season 6, especially after casting calls for what looked like members of Sam’s family surfaced online. One of those casting calls seemed like it was for Sam’s younger, manlier, more athletic brother Dickon:

• Brother, in his early to mid-20’s . Athletic, a good hunter, an excellent swordsman, manly, not particularly bright but the favourite child of the father.

Well, Entertainment Weekly reported this morning that the Game of Thrones producers have cast English actor and model Freddie Stroma, best known for roles as a Bachelor-type figure on the Lifetime drama UnREAL and as Cormac McLaggen in the final three Harry Potter movies, in the role. That’s his Harry Potter character pictured above, although you probably didn’t need help to figure that out.

We haven’t met Dickon in the books yet, but Stroma seems like a canny choice for the role. He’s affable, classically handsome, and seems like he’ll be able to slip easily into the role of a naturally gifted favorite son who hasn’t had many things go wrong for him in life. The Tarly family drama promises to be interesting next year, with Dickon as the good-natured but somewhat clueless brother and Randyll as the hardass father who would rather banish Sam to the Wall than see him inherit his estate. With Sam’s mother and sister also in the mix, not to mention Gilly and Little Sam, there are probably some very awkward family dinners in the future.