While much of Game of Thrones' central cast was initially actors and actresses who hadn't yet fully consumed audiences' imaginations, the show has aimed extremely high with its casting as the years have gone on, and Season 7 will be no exception. The fantasy epic has added the Oscar-winning thesp Jim Broadbent to the location-spanning ensemble for its penultimate year, and we cannot wait to see the veteran actor adding his gravitas to this dark narrative.
"Surprisingly, HBO has released every single detail about Jim Broadbent's Game of Thrones character, down to his shoe size and how he'll be killed." That's what I'd say if we lived in some kind of an opposite-sourced fantasy land. Because of course we're still in the shadows on who (or what) Broadbent will be getting his hands dirty with. According to EW, the role is "significant," but the fact pile stops climbing there. It's more of a fact plain, really.
Sadly, significant doesn't always mean "regular." While we might see Jim Broadbent filling an important role that weaves heavily into Cersei's campaign or Dany's trek, he could just as easily get stuck with something far more fleeting, as it happened with the promising additions of Max Von Sydow (who got three episodes as the Three-Eyed Raven) and Ian McShane (who appeared in one episode as Brother Ray). Nobody is regretting those performances, obviously, but no one would have scoffed at seeing those actors on a weekly basis, either.
Recently, casting notices made their way to the public eye that seemingly revealed a host of new characters that will be introduced in Season 7. It's unclear if Broadbent would fit into one of those roles, but the only ones that would fit him easily are the General, the Priest and the Merchant. Sadly, all of those are single-episode roles, unless the casting calls were intentionally skewed to throw people off. Expect nothing less from the secrecy-cloaked minds of showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Never far away from a project, Jim Broadbent has been as busy as ever in recent years. He's been in films such as Brooklyn and The Legend of Tarzan, and on TV shows such as London Spy and the miniseries War & Peace. He'll soon be seen in Bridget Jones' Baby and The Sense of an Ending, and his voice will be heard in the animated features Ethel & Ernest and Magik. It's always good to be a fan of Broadbent.
Game of Thrones will return to HBO for its "holy balls" Season 7 in 2017, deeper into the year than its normal spring release. While you wait, check out everything coming out in the next few months with our fall premiere schedule.
