By our count, today marks the final official day of filming on Game of Thrones Season 6. Congratulations, cast and crew! Looks like you made it!
With filming finally over (and note that it took longer than in past years), we can expect the cast members to start hitting the interview circuit. Gwendoline Christie (Brienne) has been talking plenty about the show over the past couple of weeks, but she’s technically on the press trail for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Soon enough, the actors will be doing interviews specifically about Game of Thrones.
But not yet. We do have some interesting quotes from Natalie “Margaery Tyrell” Dormer and Liam “Davos Seaworth” Cunningham on hand, though. Let’s start with Dormer, who gave an interview with Den of Geek about herher horror movie The Forest. Inevitably, Thrones came up. After saying that she’d wrapped on Season 6 “last week,” Dormer teased a new scene partner she’ll have next year.
"What I love about Game of Thrones is every year you don’t really know who your pairing is going to be with. I’ve had some great stuff with Sophie Turner in the past, and some great stuff with Lena Headey. And I’ve got a whole new partner to play with in this season. So, I had a lot of fun there."
We certainly remember some of Margaery’s excellent scenes with Sansa and Cersei. Who could her new partner be? Hmm…
BEGIN SPOILERS AND SPECULATION
The most obvious answer is the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). When last we left Margaery, she was rotting in holy jail for committing perjury. We know that she’ll remain imprisoned until Episode 6, so that could give her time for a few sit-downs with the High Sparrow.
Speaking of Episode 6, we also know it’s when Margaery will get released, apparently with the High Sparrow’s cooperation. From what we can piece together, he lets her go because she convinces him that she’s repented of her wicked ways. Earlier comments from Dormer indicate that whatever religious awakening Margaery may undergo isn’t geniune, though. Maybe the scenes between them involve Margaery plying her powers of persuasion, or maybe then even work together.
Also, keep in mind that Jaime Lannister is the one who picks Margaery up from the Great Sept of Baelor following her release. Could he be the “new partner” Dormer is talking about? My money’s on the High Sparrow, but call Jaime a dark horse.
Dormer also compared and contrasted Margaery with real-life wannabe queen Anne Boleyn, whom Dormer played on Showtime’s The Tudors. “They did turn out to be two totally different women,” she said. “They want to be queen for different reasons and also, their demise of being thrown into a jail cell has definitely been played very differently.”
You could take this to mean that Margaery, unlike Boleyn, will not be executed following her imprisonment, or that the means of their imprisonments were different. (Boleyn was accused of adultery and thrown in jail on weak evidence much as Margaery was in A Feast for Crows. That story changed quite a bit during the transition from page to screen.)
Turning our attention to Cunningham, the actor some intriguing things to say about Season 6 in an interview with Paddock, a publication focused on Formula One. (Apparently, Cunningham is a big racing fan.) Here’s what he had to say about Season 6.
"It is bigger, brasher, bolder and weirder. It’s written by the two biggest fans of the books, so they treat the story with great delicacy, grace and with tremendous amount of love. So we’re in safe hands. Kind of."
Those are some choice adjectives. The bit about it being “bigger, brasher,” and “bolder” fits with earlier comments from cast members that the pace is sped up. I’m intrigued by “weirder,” though. I wonder if there’ll be more magic shenanigans involved.
Cunningham also talked about how insane shooting Game of Thrones is (“At one point we had four crews shooting, while even Hollywood movies sometimes have only two at a time.”) and admitted that he can’t go anywhere nowadays without being asked about Jon Snow, given that Davos was in the area when the 998th Lord Commander went down. I’ll leave you with this quote.
"I’ve read all the scripts of the show and I know exactly what’s going to happen…It would be awful and stupid of me to spoil anything. Thankfully, not even large, very large sums of money, not even [Formula One Group chief executive Bernie Ecclestone’s] wallet could get it out of me."