Only days after the spectacular Season 6 finale of Game of Thrones, just when you think the hype over the outstanding show is about to die down, we receive the first official news about Season 7. GoT unveiled the four directors that will take the helm of the ship to Westeros in 2017.
Entertainment Weekly provides the list and their impressive resumes:
– Alan Taylor: An Emmy-winning veteran of The Sopranos, Taylor helped pioneer the visual storytelling style of the show when he helmed the pivotal ninth and 10th episodes of season 1, particularly “Baelor” (the episode where Ned Stark was executed). The Thrones producers were so impressed they gave Taylor four episodes to helm in season 2 – including the premiere and the finale. Then Marvel snatched him up for Thor: The Dark World followed by Taylor reuniting with Emilia Clarke to direct her big-screen role in Terminator: Genisys. Now he’s back on Thrones for the first time since 2012.
– Jeremy Podeswa: The Canadian director and Boardwalk Empire veteran scored an Emmy nomination for directing the show’s most controversial hour, season 5’s darkly tense “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.” This year he directed the propulsive season premiere as well as Jon Snow’s riveting resurrection episode, “Home.”
– Mark Mylod: A four-time director on the show, the British veteran of Showtime’s Shameless and HBO’s Entourage took on this season’s uniquely textured re-introduction of the The Hound in “The Broken Man,” as well as Arya’s exciting chase sequence in “No One.”
– Matt Shakman: A newcomer to the series. Shakman is best known for his work on FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a comedy loved by Benioff and Weiss (the showrunners even wrote an episode, “Flowers for Charlie,” although it’s not one of the 39 episodes Shakman has directed). Shakman has also helmed episodes of AMC’s Mad Men, CBS’ The Good Wife and FX’s Fargo.
There are only four directors because the last two seasons of Thrones will be reduced from the normal 10 episodes. GoT showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss made the devastating news that there is only 13-15 episodes remaining in the season.
Curiously absent from this list is Miguel Sapochnik, the director of the Battle of the Bastards (Including that mesmerizing shot of Jon Snow with a wall of charging horses at him) and the riveting Season 6 finale, as well as Season 5 episodes Hardhome and The Gift. It could be because he is filming the new Netflix 10-episode series Altered Carbon. Or it could mean that Game of Thrones is not having many epic battles next season, instead setting up for a majestic and bloody final season. Maybe they are saving him for Season 8, when there could be enormous battles throughout Westeros, which could exploit Sapochnik’s talents at making GoT more cinematic.
If you’re interested in Altered Carbon, it is based on Richard Morgan’s award-winning novel by the same name. Here’s the synopsis from Variety:
Set in the 25th century. In the futuristic story, the human mind has been digitized and the soul is transferable from one body to the next. Takeshi Kovacs, a former elite interstellar warrior known as an Envoy who has been imprisoned for 500 years, is downloaded into a future he had tried to stop. If he can solve a single murder in a world where technology has made death nearly obsolete, he’ll get a chance at a new life on Earth.
Only 10 more months until new Game of Thrones.
[EW]