Game of Thrones Season 6 Directors Line Up

Game of Thrones Season 6 production is revving its engine. With filming due to start in only a few days time, it’s time to find out who the production has locked up to direct for the coming year. Lost veteran Jack Bender already revealed he was booked for the next six months with the production earlier this week, and “Hardhome” director Miguel Sapochnik tweeted hints last month he was heading to Ireland for pre-production.

Now Entertainment Weekly has revealed the full list of who will direct which episodes. As they did last year, the production has booked five directors, each of whom are assigned a consecutive pair of episodes. Sapochnik will be joined by two other veterans from last season, Mark Mylod (“High Sparrow,” “Sons of the Harpy”) and Jeremy Podeswa (“Kill the Boy,” “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”). The other two are new to the production, and come with long pedigrees.

Without further ado:

Episodes 1&2: Jeremy Podeswa
Episodes 3&4: Daniel Sackheim
Episodes 5&6: Jack Bender
Episodes 7&8: Mark Mylod
Episodes 9&10: Miguel Sapochnik

Let’s start with the veterans.

Jeremy Podeswa: Before coming to Game of Thrones last season, Podeswa had worked on a long list of premium cable dramas, including Six Feet Under, The Tutors, and Queer As Folk. His contributions last year, “Kill The Boy” and “Unbowed Unbent Unbroken,” were solid, but unfortunately also included both the roundly panned Sand Snake fight with Jaime and Bronn, and of course, Sansa’s infamous wedding night, which caused an uproar. With the season premiere and second episodes on his plate, he might just end up being the guy to bring Jon Snow back to life. (If you buy into that theory, anyway.)

Mark Mylod: The man who directed and executive produced the pilot for ABC’s hit Once Upon A Time, Mylod’s other major credit was being a regular director on HBO’s Entourage. Like Podeswa, last year was his first season with the show, where he turned in episodes 3 and 4 “High Sparrow” and “Sons of the Harpy.” He’s been assigned to the back half of this season, with episodes 7 and 8. The last couple of seasons, episode 8 has been the biggest episode of the season, even overshadowing the traditional penultimate slot. can Mylod keep that streak going for a third year?

Miguel Sapochnik: Before making a huge splash last year with episodes 7 and 8, “The Gift” and “Hardhome,” Sapochnik’s major credits were House MD, Awake, and Fringe. Having directed what some call the best episode of the entire series with “Hardhome,” it’s no surprised the show is bringing him back for the critical Episode 9 and 10 slots this year. (It also begs the question if we will see another huge White Walker battle in either the traditional penultimate climax episode, or in the finale next year.)

As for our newbies:

Daniel Sackheim: X-Files fans might recognize this name from back in the 1990s, when he produced and directed several episodes. He also won a directing Emmy for NYPD Blue. It’s not a big surprise Benioff and Weiss would be eager to bring him aboard. His current resume includes both the critically acclaimed The Americans and that other zombie show that gets compared to Thrones a lot, The Walking Dead. of course, the first question is, since he has experience directing zombies, will episodes 3 and 4 be White Walker heavy?

Jack Bender: As we noted earlier this week, Bender is a long time industry vet, with Lost being one of his major credits. (He directed a ton of episodes for the series, including the critically divisive finale of the series.) Other major credits include Alias and The Sopranos. He’ll be doing what arguably might be the most difficult episodes of the season: 5 and 6, which always suffer in the ratings from mid season sag, as well as being a lot of build-up for major moments that don’t pay off until later on down the line. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with them.

• Published on 06/26/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 06/26/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT