John Bradley wins an award, Daniel Portman (Podrick) makes us nervous, and other cast member news

What are the stars of Game of Thrones doing when not filming season 8? Let’s find out.

A few months back, director Brendan Cleaves put out a short film, called Roger, starring Game of Thrones star John Bradley (Sam Tarly). The synopsis is thus: “Stephen (Seann Walsh) arrives home after six months in Mongolia to discover his best friend Roy (John Bradley) has replaced him with a ventriloquist’s dummy called Roger.” It’s weird. Watch:

Weird pays off, as Bradley has won the Zeus Award for Best Actor at the Independent Days Film Festival. Bradley wasn’t on hand to accept the award in person, possibly because he was accepting a different award on behalf of Game of Thrones at the British Academy Television Craft Awards, but Cleaves accepted on his behalf. Congrats all around!

Moving on, we’re concerned about Podrick Payne. We have yet to see actor Daniel Portman on the set for Game of Thrones season 8, and he’s been filling up his schedule with a suspiciously large number of other things. For example, he recently uploaded this shot of himself in medieval costume behind the scenes of a project about Robert the Bruce, the famed Scottish king, taking care to mention that this is not him on the set of Thrones:

It’s not the first time he’s posted such shots, either. And on top of that, Portman will be at Armageddon Expo in New Zealand from May 26-27 and June 2-4, when we know season 8 filming will be ongoing. It’s probably nothing, but we can’t help but wonder if all this time away from set means Podrick has an early exit. Hopefully he shows up at the big shoot going down in Belfast now.

Next, we now know beyond a reasonable doubt we still have no clue who Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) will play in the hotly anticipated Avengers: Infinity War, even though the movie comes out in a few days. Nerdist  got our hopes up a few days ago when it confidently proclaimed that Dinklage would be playing villain Corvus Glaive, a member of Thanos’ Black Order. Then this happened:

Whoops.

Now that Corvus Glaive has been ruled out, there’s a strong possibility that Dinklage will portray Eitri, the King of the Dwarves. Eitri’s dwarves were responsible for forging Thor’s hammer in the Marvel universe, and since Thor lost that hammer in Thor: Ragnarok…you see where this is going.

The only clue directors Anthony and Joe Russo have given about Dinklage’s role in Infinity War is that it may take “a beat or two” for fans to recognize him, but they will. So whoever Dinklage is playing, expect prosthetics.

Finally, are you thinking about seeing A Quiet Place? Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) approves.

Well, there you go.

Next: Video: The Unsullied and Dothraki march on [SPOILER], and filming starts at Ballintoy Harbour

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