At last year's Comic-Con International everyone got pretty excited about the announcement of the new cast members coming to HBO's Game of Thrones – and nobody was more excited by the casting of Diana Rigg than George R.R. Martin himself.
"I flash back to my youth and all those days I spent watching The Avengers and ... Emma Peel, wow!" A Song of Ice and Fire author Martin told the crowd in Hall H. "That’s pretty amazing."
In addition to Rigg, who will be playing Lady Olenna Tyrell (aka the Queen of Thorns), another eight new cast members were announced during the HBO fantasy show's panel. Now, thanks to the first batch of photos from the set, we're finally getting a new look at some of those actors in character. We've got Clive Russell as Brynden "The Blackfish" Tully, Thomas Brodie Sangster as Jojen Reed, Ellie Kendrick as Meera Reed, Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion, and Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr. Sadly missing in this photoset, however, are Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei, Mackenzie Crook as Orell, and Kerry Ingram as Shireen Baratheon.
But we'll take it – especially considering the slew of returning favorites here like Peter Dinklage's Tyrion Lannister and Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen. (Mother of Dragons, forever!)
Check out the characters – old and new – in the gallery above. Spring is coming, and with it we'll doubtless be getting more teases of the show – like actual new characters moving and talking and stuff – before the season 3 premiere. In the meantime, we wait.
Game of Thrones returns to HBO on March 31, but we're already taking bets on who dies in season 3 now, if you're interested.
