The stunt castings for Game of Thrones Season 7 are starting to leak from the participants, and some of them reveal scene spoilers.
There were quite a few things that came out of the Game of Thrones SxSW panel, even if new footage wasn’t one of them/ We learned from Maisie Williams that she thinks it’s funny to joke that Sansa is going to die. We learned that for all their muddying the waters about not knowing how many episodes were left, the answer (which was 13 a year ago) is still 13–seven this season and six in the final one, effectively making this Game of Thrones Season 7 parts 1 and 2, just like we all assumed it was originally.
We also learned that long time fan and celebrity who has been trying to get on the show for a couple of years now, Ed Sheeran, was granted his wish.
Ed Sheeran is not the first musical artist to find his way onto the show. Both Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and Will Champion from Coldplay turned up in Season 3 to play off the Stark family with a rousing chorus of The Rains of Castamere. A year later, it was Sigur Rós who appeared to do the same for the Lannisters at Joffrey’s wedding.
What is Ed doing on the show? No one would say. But the band members from Mastodon have been more forthcoming. They appeared on the show in season 5–this time not playing anyone off, but as extra Wildings who join the Wight side of the fight at the end of the episode “Hardhome”.
Game of Thrones Season 5 Episode 8. Official Image via HBO/Helen Sloan
And now apparently they’re back. And with hints that suggest they’ll be doing more of the same.
And by hints we mean “straight out admissions that that’s who they’re playing again”.
Speaking during their appearance on The Jasta Show podcast, guitarist Brent Hinds admitted they were wights again.
"“I just came back from my second cameo Game of Thrones. This time, I had my broken leg and they were like, ‘You’re doing the best zombie walk, we want you to come right towards the camera. I want you to drag this axe behind you.’ I’m like a reborn, come-to-life Wildling turning into a White Walker.”"
So does this mean we’re going to be seeing the same band of Wights behind the Night King this season? Is this a deliberate choice to bring back Wildlings that Tormund and Jon knew before they turned to make the battle that much emotionally harder?
Next: Game of Thrones Season 7: The Death of Some Spoilers
Or does the show figure all wights look the same anyway? We’ll find out at some point this season. Game of Thrones returns July 16th, 2017.