Entertainment Weekly exclusive photos

Entertainment Weekly, a magazine for entertainment media news and critical reviews (and part of the Time Warner corporation, same as HBO – hey, it’s Game of Thrones, it all stays in the family), has just published an exclusive preview of GOT on their website. They have ten (10!) new production photos up, with short quotes from some of the actors and comments that provide bits of background to the plot and the premise of the show. The comments are spoilery, but nothing beyond the pilot (apart from the last photo comment, *beware*!) … still, I think they reveal too much – though not everything – about the *ehm* episode one cliffhanger. [The spoilers have been removed at our request. Thanks, EW!] More material has been promised in this week’s issue of EW. The photos are all credited to Helen Sloan [Heidi was indeed a typo on EW’s side]. They are rather small in size the way they appear in the EW gallery, but I am sure high resolution ones will surface soon as well (once the exclusivity wears off). Here’s the one that I like most: Lords and Ladies, we give you Jaime Lannister in Kingsguard armour.

Credit: Helen Sloan / HBO

Here follows the list of all ten photos (mild spoilers on character locations!):

• 1 Jon, Sam, and Pyp in their training gear in the courtyard of Castle Black – HI RES version
• 2 A group of armoured horsemen in the Vale – HI RES version
• 3 King Robert in Winterfell, Stark guards kneeling – HI RES version
• 4 Cersei at the dinner table – HI RES version
• 5 Jaime in Kingsguard armour, holding his steed – HI RES version
• 6 Lord Eddard Stark in the familiar council chamber with Pycelle – HI RES version
• 7 Jon supervising Bran’s archery practice – HI RES version
• 8 Dany in a Dothraki outfit standing on the field of willows set – HI RES version
• 9 Tyrion thrown on the floor, Mord snarling in the background – HI RES version
• 10 Tyrion, Ser Vardis Egen, and Catelyn in the high hall of the Eyrie – HI RES version

Quotes from the cast, so you can read them without exposing yourself to potential spoilers in the comments:

• Mark Addy: ”It’s time-consuming, shooting riding. It’s hard to portray a fearsome warrior who was merciless in his pursuit of power. There was talk like ‘Why are they turning the king into a clown?’ because I’ve been in funny stuff before. But I think once they see it, the fans will love this.”
• Lena Headey on Cersei: “She’s really complex. She’s got a spiral down into a bit of madness.”
• Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on Jaime: ”He has the chance to go from being Darth Vader to being something quite different.”
• Sean Bean: ”The story is so different from what we’re used to seeing on television.”
• Michelle Fairley (gets it): “It’s not so much fantasy. It’s really gutsy and glorious. We just happen to be wearing costumes and armor.”

Hear Me Roar: This is massive! And it will be even more so when we get higher resolution photos. So many details to discuss again … armour and costumes in more detail, the Stark shields with the direwolf, Tyrion’s expression, finally more cloaks present, our first glimpse of the Eyrie. Jon and Bran look great together, with a warm sibling bond between them – it’s in my top three of the batch alongside Jaime and Tyrion&Mord. I suspect this is the beginning of the first peak of promotional activity scheduled before the holidays. Keep it coming, HBO!

UPDATE: Ran of Westeros provides his own comments to the photos here. He has identified the commander of the group of horsemen in the second photo as Ser Vardis Egen.

UPDATE 2: Links to high resolution photos from Making Game of Thrones added.

• Published on 11/18/2010 at 2:32 AM CDT
• Last updated on 11/18/2010 at 2:32 AM CDT