The Mountain has always been one of the most physically imposing characters on Game of Thrones, dwarfing even the Hound. He was doomed to die back in Season 4 before smashing the skull of Oberyn Martell, but de-chained former maester Qyburn reanimated the Mountain's body before it got too cold. The Mountain is now known as Cersei's guard Ser Robert Strong, and he's been wearing a helmet to cover up his dead head for the past couple of seasons. Now, enormous Icelandic actor Hafthór Björnsson has posted a behind-the-scenes picture of Zombie Mountain without his helmet, and it's not pretty. Check it out!
Hafthór Björnsson shared the picture on his Twitter account, and it's a much closer (and grosser) look at the face of the dead-ish Mountain than we've gotten on Game of Thrones. Ever since the Mountain's battle with the Viper in Season 4, his face has been concealed within a helmet almost entirely, with enough of it shown to be super creepy to those of us who know that Ser Robert Strong is actually Zombie Mountain, but not so much that everybody in King's Landing should jump to the conclusion that Cersei's guard is a reanimated knight.
It's interesting to see that Hafthór Björnsson evidently sits in the makeup chair long enough to get the full zombie works on his face considering that most of the prosthetics are never caught on camera. Game of Thrones could probably get away with only giving him the putrefying-flesh look on the parts of his face that show through the helmet. Hopefully the detail work on his zombie face means that the Mountain will be unmasked at some point before the end of the series. An epic showdown between the Hound and what's left of the Mountain could be even more epic if one of them looked like a George Romero extra. Really, most things are more epic if zombie faces are involved.
This scabby visage is actually the fourth face of the Mountain to hit the airwaves over the six seasons of Game of Thrones so far. Hafthór Björnsson is the third actor to tackle the part when he joined the cast in Season 4. He didn't have too many scenes before he underwent the procedure to become Cersei's undead henchman; Björnsson came on the scene for the Mountain vs. Viper battle, and it was the Viper's poison that would force Qyburn to use unnatural methods to keep him animated.
Qyburn and Ceresi have certainly kept the Mountain very animated since they brought him back. In fact, it was his violence on Cersei's behalf that led the High Sparrow (via Tommen) to decree that trials by combats would no longer be allowed, which...didn't turn out well for the High Sparrow. Ser Robert's big moment in the Season 6 finale came when Cersei left him to torture the septa who had delighted in shaming her during her incarceration in the Sept of Baelor. He's been a busy boy.
We can assume that Hafthór Björnsson will be back to do more dirty deeds for Cersei in Season 7 of Game of Thrones. Zombie Mountain just wouldn't be the same if he were to be recast yet again, and Björnsson seems enthusiastic about the role. Check out our breakdown of what we know so far about Game of Thrones Season 7 to see what has been confirmed for next year.
