Report: Karl Davies cast as… Alton Lannister?

A tiny bit of casting news, British actor Karl Davies has reportedly been cast to play a character named Alton Lannister. He has been seen on set and his CV confirms it (see what happens when you wait to release casting news, HBO?). Davies has appeared on the small screen in the UK in roles in the British soap Emmerdale and more recently in the comedy/drama series Kingdom. This looks to be his first role in a US production.

In the books, there is no Alton Lannister. So it is unclear who Davies may be playing in the show. Reports from the set indicate he may be filling the role of Cleos Frey from the books. Cleos has a Frey father but his mother is a Lannister, so maybe they reversed his parents to give him that last name. In the books, Cleos fights for Jaime Lannister and gets captured by Robb Stark along with Jaime in the Battle of the Whispering Wood. His big role in the story however doesn’t come about until the third book, A Storm of Swords. Assuming Davies is playing the Cleos character, this lends further credence to my theory of them moving up a certain storyline from book three into the second season.

Winter Is Coming: Well this is better than no casting news, I guess. Questions abound though. Who is Davies playing? If it is Cleos, why did they change his name and make him a Lannister? And if it is not supposed to be Cleos, than who is Alton Lannister and what is his role in the story?

• Published on 07/30/2011 at 12:15 PM CDT
• Last updated on 10/20/2016 at 6:03 PM CDT