Game of Thrones season 6 brought us plenty of surprises. The first big one came at the end of the first episode, when Melisandre took off her necklace to reveal that she was, in fact, an extremely old woman making herself appear young through magic. Fans won’t forget that moment anytime soon.
Today, actress Carice van Houten posted a pic of what appears to be herself under Melisandre’s complicated old age makeup.
As she says, the makeup job is pretty remarkable. Game of Thrones doesn’t skimp on that stuff.
Assuming this is Melisandre’s makeup (and it’d be a pretty big coincidence if van Houten were playing a different ancient crone in some other project), the question is: when was this pic taken? So far as we know, filming on Game of Thrones season 7 is over, but there’s always the possibility of reshoots and touchups. This could also have been taken at some point during the past several months. We saw very little of van Houten during the filming season — was she indoors having her crone makeup applied?
Or it could be a behind-the-scenes shot from season 6. Without more info, it’s impossible to tell. But if Old Melisandre does return in season 7, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.