Comic-Con 2011: Game of Thrones Panel

Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin graced San Diego Comic-Con attendees Friday afternoon with his presence as he moderated the much anticipated HBO series panel of the same name. Ballroom 20 was already jam packed with fans and another seven thousand were waiting eagerly to get inside. It was definitely the panel with the second most fans today, the first being Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn of course.

Making their appearances were showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and actors Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kit Harrington, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Jason Momoa, and Emilia Clarke. Fans were thrilled to see their beloved characters in person from the roaring applause that they received.

Martin began by asking Benioff and Weiss how they got into the series and how they got involved in the madness. Benioff responded saying that six years ago, he got the first few books and it was like crack on paper. He couldn’t stop reading.

The actors proceeded to answer questions on how the show has changed their lives and Headey in particular talked about how people have come up to her saying “I hate you.” Still she loves to play Cersei Lannister because she views her as a very confused and misunderstood character, who imagined life to go quite another way than it has.

Momoa, who is also playing Conan in the new Conan The Barbarian movie added that in a fight, Khal Drogo would kick Conan’s ass. He shared how after finishing working on that film, he wanted to show how bad ass his character on the series was. The result was an intense scene where Momoa rips out a man’s tongue bare handed. He goes on to talk about how as he was reading the books and loving the series, the moment he came on upon Drogo dying, he went to the nearest Barnes and Noble and had to look for Drogo in the next book.

Benioff and Weiss talk about finding Momoa through a fan message board. Someone had suggested the actor and the showrunners felt that he was Drogo-y and had him come in to read for the part. Momoa blew them away at his audition as he broke into an impromptu dance. This audition may be in the upcoming Game of Thrones season one DVD and Blu-Ray. Other goodies fans can look forward to are artwork from storyboard artist William Simpson, first auditions from the cast members, and a lot of other supplemental materials.

For season two, audiences can expect a whole new set of great characters like the red priestess Melisandre. We also get to see those dragons and wolves grow up, as well as see the bad things lurking north of the wall.

The showrunners felt that one pivotal scene they are looking forward to is a scene they are calling RW. Readers of the books know what this mysterious RW is, but for us purely TV viewers, we’ll just have to wait to find out.

Lastly given the question how the actors end the series if they could chose, Dinklage had the best response, “Dance number.”