New casting notice: a “haggard-looking” lord of a noble house

Filming on Game of Thrones Season 6 is well underway, but casting notices continue to leak. Fansite Watchers on the Wall has a new one, for a character described as “the best remaining part this season.”

This character is a “haggard-looking” lord in his fifties. He’s white, which puts him on Westeros, and will have at least one long scene in which he does a lot of talking. He’s smart, wry, and articulate, “a hard man and a realist.” The production is looking for someone who’s “great with language and who has a lot of wattage,” probably so he can carry his big scene.

Watchers speculates that this character might be yet another northern lord, and that seems like a good guess. The northern conspiracy plot promises to be robust next year, as we’ve already heard from previous casting notices that we’ll be spending time with the lords of Houses Umber and Karstark, and reports persist of a big battle scene involving the Boltons, the wildlings, and several other Northern houses.

So if this character is a northern lord, which one might he be? One prominent lord from the books that we haven’t heard much about on the show is Lord Wyman Manderly, the famously fat lord of White Harbor and a staunch Stark loyalist. True, the character description doesn’t describe the character as morbidly obese, but the show has broken with the book before in that area (just look at the thin guy they got to play Yezzan zo Qaggaz). Also, Manderly does have a nice, long scene where he speechifies about his anger over the Red Wedding in A Dance with Dragons.

"My son Wendel came to the the Twins a guest. He ate Lord Walder’s bread and salt, and hung his sword upon the wall to feast with friends. And they murdered him. Murdered, I say, and may the Freys choke upon their fables. I drink with Jared, jape with Symond, promise Rhaegar the hand of my own beloved granddaughter … but never think that means I have forgotten. The north remembers, Lord Davos. The north remembers, and the mummer’s farce is almost done. My son is home."

So that could be neat.

Another option is Robett Glover, another Northern lord who’s loyal to the Starks who’s described as “haggard” in the novels. In A Dance with Dragons, Glover and Manderly are in cahoots, so perhaps we’ll see both. Looking outside the north, this might be a lord from the Iron Islands (Rodrik Harlaw) or the Reach. It’s pretty open, but our money’s on someone from the North.

The actor cast to play this character will film in Northern Ireland in early December. We’ll be on the lookout for more info.

Next: Check out the first images of Dany's new khalasar from Season 6