Season 7 filming: The Lannister army prepares for battle alongside an unexpected ally

Filming continues at el Barrueco de Arriba in Cáceres, where the Game of Thrones production will be filming a major Season 7 action scene for the next couple of weeks. Twitter user HaiPai posted some terrific shots of the filming a couple of days ago. Now, there are more.

Go no further if you don’t want to read SPOILERS.

If you’re just hopping on the spoiler train, here’s a summary of what the production is filming here:

• Before this battle is joined, the Lannister army will sack Highgarden, the seat of House Tyrell. Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Bronn (Jerome Flynn) will lead the Lannister forces.
• On their way back to King’s Landing, the Lannisters will be ambushed by Daenerys, who will be riding her dragon, and her Dothraki horde.

• The battle will take up approximately a third of the fourth episode of the season.

Here are a couple of new pics, showing the Lannister army forming up alongside an unexpected ally.

Photo:

/Twitter Photo:

/Twitter

The guys in red are clearly Lannisters. The guys in darker colors, the ones with the pale shields, may be members of House Tarly. That would fit with an earlier photo that showed two men who appeared to be Randyll Tarly (James Faulkner) and Dickon Tarly (Tom Hopper) riding at the head of a column of Lannister soldiers. Here, they all seem to be bracing for some unseen threat together. It’s a good bet that the threat is Daenerys’ army. (Also, imagine the special effects department has swelled their numbers significantly.)

Basically, it’s looking more and more likely that Randyll Tarly, father to Sam, is going to betray the Tyrells, the family to whom he is sworn, and join up with the Lannisters. That would explain how the Lannisters are able to get inside Highgarden.

In addition to the on-set photos, James Faulkner has been spotted in the area, along with Coster-Waldau.

You’ll notice that Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm) is in the area, as well. That may mean that the Unsullied will be part of this battle scene, as well, although we haven’t seen them in action yet.

Los Siete Reinos has yet more pictures of the scene. The one below gives you a great view of the nearby water. Might Daenerys fly in from the sea?

And where is Daenerys in all this, you ask? Well, if she really is riding in on Drogon, actress Emilia Clarke will film most of her material on a soundstage in Belfast, as she did for the Battle of Meereen in Season 6.

And in related but shallower news, Clarke recently posted this photo to her Instagram account, and it quickly became the most liked thing on there.

We’ll drink to that.