Game of Thrones: Working on the Weekend 

is a seven-days-a-week gig sometimes. You never know when you’ll see the cast and crew of the show hard at work on making the new season, and this week is no exception.  Even series star Emilia Clarke reported for filming on a Sunday, and crews are now back to work on a familiar set.

This morning, Clarke shared a photo of the well-known Harland and Wolff cranes in Belfast, which are found right by Titanic Studios. Clarke says with the photo, “Belfast you are shining for us this morning.”

Belfast you are shining for us this morning. #makessundayworkingthatmuchmoredoable #ormaybethatsthe17coffeees… #themotherofdragonssurewokeupthismorning 🙈🏋🏼

Yesterday, GoT trucks and the standard pink “GOT” signage were spotted out at Magheramorne Quarry. The disused quarry is home to the Wall and exterior Castle Black set. Luckily, a fan saw the trucks in place and snapped a couple photos:

Activity at Castle Black Set yesterday @IrishThrones @WiCnet @WatchersOTWall pic.twitter.com/eQwE07c35i

Who else might be joining Clarke at the studio today? Probably her usual crew- Nathalie Emmanuel was spotted this morning at a Belfast hotel, along with John Bradley:

Bita cleb spotting at breakfast 🙊 #got #gameofthrones #fitzwilliam #belfast #sam #missandei

Either way, it’s great to see activity resuming at the Wall. With Jon Snow’s story shifting a little south to Winterfell, I was curious how much of Castle Black we’d be seeing this year. Bran was last seen near the Wall, and it’s inevitable that the White Walker army will reach it- will they breach the Wall and bring it down in season 7?

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Was surprised to see Emilia working on a sunday when they usually get breaks plus they said they’ll film until february. Though she was the least one to arrive in Belfast this year so that’s why.

I think there will be two Wall scene in season 7. The first and the very last.

First: Bran and Meera goes through and Edd helps them.

The Night King arrives with his army. He touches the ground and because of the mark on Bran, the Wall collapses.

I really hope Bran’s ability worth this sacrifice. Maybe when he learn to control the visions he can share those past events for anyone with a single touch.

I think it will be coming down but maybe bit till the end of the season. I am honestly thinking that Bran will arrive at castle black thinking Jon is there but ends up having them send a raven to Winterfell so Jon can come back to the wall and he can explain what’s been going on. It would be way quicker for Jon to travel than for Bran to. Maybe they bring Bran back to winterfell but I think it more likely that Bran stays at the wall to be there waiting for the Night King. There is supposed to be a weirwood tree growing right inside the Night Fort and there are secrets hidden there so seems like an important place to visit (and perfect place for Bran to set up shop since he will have shelter, a weirwood, etc) and big enough to hold a large force.

I’m curious to see what the first scene of season 7 will be. It was easy to guess last year’s scene, but now it seems they could go in several different directions.

Jon already left the Wall. He won’t be coming back.

If the NK attacks the Wall and Bran stays there, he dies. He won’t be waiting for the NK. It’s easy for Bran to get to Winterfell with help from the Night’s Watch (horses, food, etc.). He’s not circumnavigating the globe. There are no hints or forshadowing that there’s some weirwood growing in a random castle, not to mention it would be boring to keep a main character doing nothing except waiting. There’s already a weirwood at Winterfell and that’s where Bran’s going.

I think the Tourney Of Harrenhal would make an excellent opening scene

I agree with your opinion. Unless the KiTN will take all of his forces to the wall to defend the North, it would be logical for Bran to go to Winterfell and combine forces and knowledge. The KW is pretty much gone; Ed and Co. are done for unless they retreat south to Winterfell.

“Don’t knock it down while I’m gone” might imply that Jon is going back sometime, but if that’s gonna happen it’s gonna be after the Wall has fallen, otherwise I don’t think they would have had Jon saying that to Edd. But I agree, there’s no reason for Jon to go to Bran, when Bran would be much safer and would probably want to go to Winterfell instead of staying at Castle Black.

Speaking of Edd, has there been any sightings of Ben Crompton? I’d hate if Dolorous Edd would die when the Wall falls– since he’s our only named character (I think?) there now, I hope he gets to escort Bran to Winterfell.

“The Mother of Dragons Sure Woke Up This Morning”

The weirwood at the Night Fort is mentioned in the books. There hasn’t been mention in the show of it but it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Bran is supposed to be waiting for the Night King when he gets to the realms of men so why go so far south?

And Jon may end up changing his mind. I don’t think that he will just leave all of them to die and handle it on their own. Like screw Edd and all of the black brothers I am just gonna sit all cushy in Winterfell and be King…really?! I think now that he has Winterfell he will switch his focus back to the real war, gather as many forces as he can to battle the WW. And maybe the wall comes down before he makes it there but I fully believe that he will be heading back to the wall at some point. I think his struggle is going to be getting the people of Westeros to understand what is truly coming for them…and probably sooner than later. The truth is the NW needs Jon and he knows it, so how does he reconcile that in his mind? There were only a few men that decided to kill him and they paid for it with their lives. I didn’t say he was going to join them in oath again but I don’t see him just leaving them there to fend not just for themselves, but leaving the entire Kingdom in their hands. Plus there was the comment he said to Edd of “don’t knock it down while I am gone” implying he will be back at some point.

What are those massive cranes used for? It seems odd that Emilia posted a picture of them. I wonder if that’s something to do with a dragon.

Indeed, the Night Fort could be an option to Bran, if it has a weirwood tree within its walls. But on the other hand the castle stood empty for centuries, and making it livable will be a problem or at least take time. I can see Jon manning it and organizing some reconstruction works, but nonetheless Bran has to get a comfortable bed and a good care to keep him sharp. Therefore, I think he’ll end up in Winterfell which will be Jon’s headquarters too.

On the other hand, I can totally see Jon making a shor visit to Castle Black. Maybe, that’s where we are going to see in Ep1 bringing supplies and men to Edd and conveniently Bran will be right on the doorstep.

I’m curious to see what the first scene of season 7 will be. It was easy to guess last year’s scene, but now it seems they could go in several different directions.

If they were to close the season with the Night King breaching the Wall, then perhaps opening it with a scene at the Wall to book end the season?

In any case, I would guess at Bran, Jon or Tyrion/Daenerys featuring in the first scene.

I may have found a new castmember, but the evidence is circumstancial and it’s probably nothing:

English actress Thandie Newton who’ll appear on Westworld tonight, just

tweeted that she will miss the first episode of said show due to being in Belfast.

Now that’s not much evidence, but as far as I can tell, she lives in Malibu and has no other project lined up that would take her to Northern Ireland. It could still be a personal trip, but you may want to run this with your sources.

I think she just captured the sunrise where she was standing

Hmm, GoT is not the only thing produced in Belfast. But if she were cast in GoT, who do you think she’d play?

Filming in Spain starts in the beginnings of November, correct? Really looking forward to those spoilers….

On Jon, Bran and the Wall… Jon’s backstory really needs only two-three more scenes from Bran, one introducing Rhaegar (probably the tourney) and one featuring Rhaegar and Lyanna talking about wanting to spawn a messiah to defeat the WW. Third one maybe going into some detail on that.

So, I can see Bran meeting Edd in E1, getting to Winterfell and telling Jon about his parentage around E3, then witnessing the additional scenes in Winterfell around E5-6, right on time for Jon to arrive at some resolution in the final episodes.

Though I never liked the ‘Bran’s mark will bring down the Wall’ theory, so I hope this will be done in a more creative way. I’d love for Jon to be actively responsible somehow, that would be funny to see people’s reaction to that.

My guess would be Night’s Watch finding Bran and bringing him to Castle Black, but there are other possibilities as well. Jamie confronting Cersei would be a good option too – that look he gave her in the finale must evolve into something. And finally the most crazy possibility: they continue the KITN scene; the chanting ends; Littlefinger arrises and sais “In fact, Jon is not who you think he is”.

Bran is also supposed to go to Jon and tell him about the visions he had of the WW and help him with whatever information he can get via the weirwood (and coincidentally there’s one at Winterfell). Bran is not going to sit around and just wait (I don’t know why people take that line so literally). He also knows about R+L, and you have to expect that this will be an important plot point in the future. Jon will prepare as best he can (maybe send resources and recruits), but he’ll probably also be distracted by the LF and Sansa drama, people not believing in WW, and all the politics going on in the North.

“Don’t knock it down while I’m gone” doesn’t mean Jon is going on a trip and coming back. It’s: 1. Jon making a joke and 2. The showrunners giving us hints that the Wall will fall down while Edd is LC.

That would be welcome news! I suppose we’ll have to wait and see…

There is quite a big possibility that you’ll get what you want. I think at some point Jon will be forced to send Bran on the greenseeing reconnaissance mission and the Night’s King will grab him again.

I see no reason why they would need to introduce Rhaegar at all. Any of Jon’s history can come as an expo dump from Bran. I don’t think we’ll need to see Lyanna again either.

Hi Dee, I will be watching. Trying to plug the hole GOT leaves after the season end; hopefully it will be good. Vinyl was a dud IMO. I only watched the first episode a little bit than halfway through. Just wasn’t for me.

I agree, As much as I enjoyed watching Bran’s vision if what happened at TOJ I have to ask how much time those would eat up with a shortened season. I think Bran, Jon and Co. will have to deal with the here and now fairly quickly.

I see no reason why they would need to introduce Rhaegar at all. Any of Jon’s history can come as an expo dump from Bran. I don’t think we’ll need to see Lyanna again either.

Yup. There’s so much left to cover still and with less episodes each season. We already know who his parents are. More than that should be left to spin-off imho.

I think the first scene will center on Cersei, perhaps with Jaime. She holds the throne and will be the focus of many characters and events this season. In fact, if Lena is lucky, Cersei will be involved in so many scenes that she’ll qualify for best LEADING actress. Other possibilities IMO are a Harrenhal tourney flashback, Dany’s fleet arriving in Westeros, and Jon having a “What do I do next?” parley with Davos, Tormund, and his inner council.

The opening I’d LIKE to see is the BWB eating around a fire, with Sandor sitting across from Beric and Thoros . While Sandor tells a funny story, Arya suddenly emerges from some bushes behind him. As Beric and the others look up, startled, Arya comes up behind the puzzled Sandor and quietly says, “Do you have any chickens today?”

I think there’ll be three Wall scenes. The two you mentioned and another in between where Bran goes back in time and builds the Wall by warging Bran the Builder and warning him of the White Walker threat (also ensuring the creation of the Night’s Watch).

I also think Bran and the Night’s King will have another in-vision confrontation. I think the mark from season 6 has worn off (and only really works if he gets marked when he’s beyond the barrier), but that good old NK will give it another go. So we’ll get a tripsy dream sequence chase scene between Bran and NK where he grabs him again.

The name of the new actress who plays the new northern lady with the sword is Megan Parkinson.

oh cool, so she’s not a body double but an actual new character.

Ah, I figured that with all these photos somebody would identify her sooner or later.

Great find! Sadly her management is Independent Talent Group Ltd. which means her CV isn’t immediately accessible.

Because Winterfell is the historic Stark seat, has a weirwood, and is where all the important decisions will be made.

The Wall is coming down. When it comes down, anybody in the vicinity will die. Ergo, the Wall has been meticulously depopulated of important characters.

Good catch! Is it too much of a stretch to think that Thandie might play an older Wylla?

Well, we know she’s playing a northern character. Her accent will be northern so it is 100% confirmed.

She looks older than 16, but I think we would have to assume that she is the character as there is a young boy at the time.

I think your mistaken. If there is a tree in Castle black why did jon and Sam venture north of the wall to the say there vows by the weirwood tree where we last saw bran?

She’s either playing another Northern lady or they aged up the character from the casting call. No way would she be able to pass off as a 16yo.

It’s funny how redheads seem to gravitate towards Jon. There’s this ‘There must always be a Stark in Winterfell’ saying and the showrunners seem intent on creating another one. ‘There must always be a redhead around Jon’. Catelyn, Ros, Ygritte, Tormund, Melisandre, Sansa, Brian from the Night’s Watch, and now this new chick.

A man from the Night’s Watch in a North Face jacket! Bradley you F*ckin’ rule! *two thumbs up!*

It was the night fort I was saying had a tree in the books. I think they said you could see the roots in the kitchen?? I don’t remember exactly if that was where it was said but it was at the Night Fort and that was the first castle built on the wall and the only to have the stairs up the side built into the actual wall. Seems important to me. I love this site people get going about this for hours it’s pretty engaging! 😀

And I feel like Bran is like a magnet for the Night King right now so would he really want Ground Zero to be his home and the people he loves?

There is a small clip from his earlier vision which I don’t believe we have seen yet where it looks like the NK approaching and you can see his reflection in the ice and you hear Bran yell “he saw us”. I will track down the actual clip if anyone wants to see the exact spot. I know that when NK grabs Bran he wakes up yelling “he saw me” in very much the same manner. But the clip says “us” and the thing he is approaching looks like ice debris to me with the NK reflection in it. This is why I have it stuck in my head that Bran will be somewhere at the wall. Maybe it’s him finding him again in vision though I don’t know.

Not at Castle Black; at the Nightfort, the abandoned fort where Bran’s party crossed paths with Sam’s party and Sam showed them how to get through the tunnel under the Wall. In the books, the weirwood grows right up through the tunnel entrance.

I may have found a new castmember, but the evidence is circumstancial and it’s probably nothing:

English actress Thandie Newton who’ll appear on Westworld tonight, just tweeted that she will miss the first episode of said show due to being in Belfast.

Now that’s not much evidence, but as far as I can tell, she lives in Malibu and has no other project lined up that would take her to Northern Ireland. It could still be a personal trip, but you may want to run this with your sources.

Could Thandie Newton be our longed-for Alleras the Sphinx/Sarella Sand? In the books I believe she is supposed to be much darker-skinned, favoring her Summer Islander mother, but I’d live with the deviation if we could get that character at all!

Also circumstantial, but if both Nathalie Emmanuel and John Bradley are hanging out in Belfast together, that could suggest Oldtown scenes being shot, after Dany’s party (or a delegation) has arrived there.

Sean C.: Because Winterfell is the historic Stark seat, has a weirwood, and is where all the important decisions will be made.

The Wall is coming down.When it comes down, anybody in the vicinity will die.Ergo, the Wall has been meticulously depopulated of important characters.

Firannion: Could Thandie Newton be our longed-for Alleras the Sphinx/Sarella Sand?

Way too old. She’s older than Pedro Pascal, in fact.

You know the studio used to be a shipyard where the Titanic was painted (hence the name Paint Hall), right? Those are shipping cranes for loading and unloading cargo. No dragon action.

Yep! Been looking forward to it for a while. I saw the original movie in the theater when I was a kid and have always loved it. I’m very interested to see how they modernize the story. Enjoy!

Sean C.: Way too old.She’s older than Pedro Pascal, in fact.

Maybe she won’t be Oberyn’s daughter in the TV version? I wouldn’t mind if she isn’t a Spice Snake – just a feisty Dornish woman disguising herself as a man to get a Citadel education would content me.

Megan Parkinson’s credits are all 2016, so she may be starting out. She identifies herself as a “Yorkshire lass” and is playing in Sally Wainwright’s new telly film about the Brontes (with Jonathan Pryce as their father), so she’ll have no trouble with the accent. I wonder if she’s a Mormont or maybe even Tormund’s daughter, considering the hair colour. Perhaps she’s even a counterpart to the “Val” character from the books.

I enjoyed vinyl .. sad it’s gone.. but too expensive I guess Cannot wait for Vikings

I’ll be checking this out as well tonight .. never saw the movie

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