Liam Cunningham (Davos) reveals when Game of Thrones season 8 starts filming

Not long ago, Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) appeared at Wired Next Fest in Florence, Italty to talk about all things Game of Thrones, and dropped some juicy info about the filming schedule. Watch the video below, and we’ll hit the big points below.

The most interesting part comes around 17:30, when Cunningham discusses his schedule. He reveals that the cast will gather in Belfast this weekend for a table read of the entire season. They’ll read through the first three episodes on Sunday, October 8 and the final three on Monday, October 9. Then they’ll rehearse that week with two of the season’s three directors. Filming begins either October 16 (Monday) or October 19 (Thursday).

He also repeats that, to his knowledge, the season 8 episodes will be “really long,” which is imagines is why they’re spending so much time filming them — he thinks they could be shooting through the end of the summer of 2018, which jibes with what other people from HBO have said. With the post-production cycle being time-consuming at the best of times and crazily elaborate on a show as effects-heavy as Game of Thrones, he very much doubts that season 8 will debut in 2018. “I mean, you could, but it would look s**t…We don’t have a date, but it’s increasingly looking like it’s going to be 2019.”

So we can expect from exciting reactions from cast and crew come this weekend! And beyond that: one last time around the block for Game of Thrones filming. I’m already getting wistful about it.

Some other tidbits from the interview:

• Seaworth originally met the Game of Thrones producers about playing a different character, but he won’t say which one.
• Apparently, if Stephen Dillane (Stannis) didn’t think a scene was working, he would just demand filming stop so it could be fixed. God, Dillane sounds more like Stannis every day.
• Cunningham will be “very very unhappy” when Game of Thrones is over. “So will my accountant.” It’s charming how earnestly he loves the show, but I swear he’s made that accountant joke a hundred times now.
• “So many ladies use Arya as a role model, and I say to them, ‘You do know she’s a psychopath?'”
• Cunningham gives some love to the bumbling guards Arya encountered at Winterfell this year as an example of the show’s commitment to writing good parts for even small characters.

• Cunningham hasn’t read the Song of Ice and Fire books on account of their size. Hilariously, it sounds like George R.R. Martin is hounding him to do it, and wants a “report” afterward.

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h/t Wired