Game of Thrones season two is coming – barely more than a month to go now – so that means the double-edged sword of GOT-related news and media (how does one avoid spoilers and endure the wait?) is in full-force.
Today, we have interviews from one new character, Xaro Xhoan Davos (played by Nonso Anozie), and two previously established characters, Peter “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aiden Gillen) and Sandor “The Hound” Clegane (Rory McCann), about their roles in the highly-anticipated upcoming season.-
On Xaro Xhoan Davos’ season two role, courtesy of Black Film, Anozie said:
“I play Xaro Xhoan Daxos and he’s an interesting character. He’s the prince of Qarth. Qarth is a new land which is further to the east of Dothraki, the host kingdom, where Daenerys was married to Khal Drogo. She’s moving on to see if she can find a way to build an army and move to take over her “rightful seat” in Westeros. She bumps into my character and a lot of new interesting things are going to happen. I can’t say legally say too much about it but it’s going to be eye-opening and exciting.”
On Littlefinger being a survivor and a strategist as opposed to an outright villain, courtesy of The University Observer, Gillen said:
“I’m actually trying to get out of playing villains now – maybe signing up for six seasons as Littlefinger goes against that, but I don’t see him as a villain, more a brilliant strategist and survivor in a cut-throat world. There’s some strong new characters (there always are with George R.R. Martin, and they’ll just keep coming) – Robert’s [Baratheon, former King of Westeros] brother Stannis being a very obvious one to note. We see Littlefinger branch out and go on some travels, too, and it’s nice to get out of the house. I have some dealings with Tyrion – he’s really dominating the scene in King’s Landing now…There’s always a lot going on and there’s no rush to pair everyone up with everyone. Having worked on ‘The Wire,’ I know the merits of playing the long game. It’s more interesting, not patronizing.”
On whether or not The Hound particularly likes King Joffrey, courtesy of Access Hollywood, Rory McCann said:
“Well, I don’t think The Hound likes Joffrey, but he’s doing his job looking after him. The power, as you can imagine, will be going to [Joffrey's] head and the real bully will be coming out, and it will be raising all sorts of memories for The Hound – the way that he was bullied. And you’ll be seeing the relationship between Sansa and Joffrey deteriorate – seeing the bullying that’s going on and again, The Hound will be able to link that to his childhood as well.”
On The Hound’s growing relationship with Sansa Stark, McCann said:
“He’s going to be in conflict, I think. I think he wants to look after Sansa and totally understands her position, but he’s also in a position [of] – if he steps in, he is risking his life… I think in the first season you can see with Sandor and Sansa, that there’s a frustration with Sandor trying to get through to Sansa that it’s not all fairytale and true knights and there’s so much badness in the world. But, by the end of the first season, obviously she’s seen… her father having his head cut off. So she’s maybe seen the light now, but I think there’s still a frustration of trying to [get her to] see the reality of the whole situation. It’s giving advice to Sansa for survival, basically.”
We saw a little bit of this angle in the Game of Thrones season one finale when Sansa very blatantly considered murdering Joffrey by pushing him to his death – and thus ensuring her own death. The Hound stopped her, of course, and there was seemingly a look of empathy on his face.
Game of Thrones season two premieres April 1st, 2012 on HBO @9pm. In the meantime, check out Game of Thrones season one on Blu-Ray and DVD March 6th, 2012.
