Another casting for the road: Game of Thrones has found its notorious sell sail pirate Salladhor Saan. Producers have enlisted Lucian Msamati in the role for the highly anticipated second season. He’s a (one more time, all together now) British stage and screen actor. Msamati is known to some HBO viewers from his role on No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Salladhor Saan is a mercenary pirate pledged to the late King Robert’s brother Stannis. In addition to Saan, Thrones season 2 has also cast a lecherous Northerner and one of his pet wives, and a faceless assassin and Theon’s fierce sister and an heir to the Iron Throne and his sorceress and the Onion Knight and a female wannabe knight and a proper princess. Check out my Game of Thrones season 1 recaps here.
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More ‘Game of Thrones’ on EW.com
I am still waiting for my wish of James Purefoy as Mance to come true…
I had never thought of James Purefoy as Mance, but now I really hope your wish comes true!
Well that would be totally awesome!
He might be out of their price range. I’m not thinking the GOT paycheck is all that big.
Hordor! it is known, Purefoy is hot
Hoder.
“Hodor.”
It is known.
Calm the f#ck down, DL.
THIS, THIS, THIS. I was hoping for him as Stannis, but he’d make a great Mance as well!
I know… my wish of him getting cast as Stannis was crushed!
Is mance even going to be in season 2?
after a quick google search on who the hell james purefoy is….YES! this is great armchair casting!
No! Joseph Campo for Mance!
I want the Reeds to be cast already.
This.
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can’t wait to see Meera as long as they don’t cast another 29 year-old to play 16. >_> Seriously, as much as I love Natalie Dormer…
Yes!
I want this too, but I’m guessing maybe their scenes might be filmed later on, so maybe they are just waiting for the time to come.
Winter-Is-Coming.Net seems to think they might not show up until season 3…I hope that’s not the case.
It would totally not make sense if they didn’t come until season 3. Bran would half-way be to the Wall by then and they are essential to his story. I’ve been hearing that they could just use Osha in place of them, but I think there are things that the Reeds bring that are unique to them. I could see them combining the characters, but I think there’s got to be at least one Reed!
that makes no sense… i hope that’s not the case either.
then again, they have a big name Natalie Dormer for Margaery so are they moving some book 3 stuff to season 2?
Exactly, where are the Reeds, Tullys and Ygritte!
i really want to meet these cranogmen
Their casting a lot of characters that I thought would be cut. I hope this means they will be announcing the Reeds soon because I was worried they would be cut.
The reeds are my favorite new characters. i really hope they don’t get cut. but and how could they cut them? they really important to the Bran story. come on HBO i’m gettin’ crazy.
And how could you cut characters that are still fairly important players at the end of book 5?
But who will play the role of “Lannister Murdered Villager Corpse #12″? Who? WHO?
I hear Dame Judi Dench is in negotiations.
She’d be great as the Queen of Thorns.
Dench of Maggi Smith.
I would love to see them do a Judi Dench cameo for the Queen of Thorns. That would be hilarious
Lol. Too true.
A veteran of British stage and screen, known for playing village corpse #3 in King Lear, and corpse #6 in Shaun of the Dead
Awesome! A two time Corpsy Award nominee!
I don’t know how Salladhor Saan, a Lyseni pirate who looks more like the Targaryens, turned into a black guy, but OK. Still excited for the show and to see what he does with the role.
Sure about that? I’ve always thought Salladhor was dark skinned. I’m pretty sure that it is the way he is first described.
His skin color is never described, but his hair is silver like the Targaryens and his ship is named Valyrian, and if he was as dark as a Summer Islander I’m sure GRRM would have mentioned it, and made sure he actually came from the Summer Islands not Lys.
Is there any other character that could be cast as black? As a black fan of the show, this casting has me very excited as I hadn’t ever expected to see any african-parallel characters in this medieval fantasy epic.
There are quite a few black characters Jalabhar Xho, Xhondo Dhoru, Quhuru Mo, Alayaya, Chataya, to name a few important ones. Sallador Saan just isn’t one of them. But I’m sure he’ll be fine in the role.
Thanks Marten, that’s good to know. It actually makes me want to read the books now that I’m aware there are black characters in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire. They’re almost always non-existent in epic fantasy. It’s a shame.
Don’t forget Strong Belwas!
I’d point out though, Ian, that none of those characters get too much screen err… book time. So don’t get too excited.
And Jesse, Strong Belwas is black? I thought he was more like a very light brown, like the dothraki. Or maybe I’m just thinking that because he carries a giant arakh.
WOW this must be the biggest cast on TV?
It’ll get thinned out a BUNCH in season 3. And that’s not based on rumor; that’s based on the book. “A Storm of Swords” is a harsh mistress for the cast.
Yeah but then in book 4 he introduces a few dozen new characters in Dorne or abroad, and then more in book 5. IF they actually film all 7 books, the cast will have ended up being hundreds of people, just for speaking roles.
and we are still waiting on important ones like Ygritte and the Reeds. I got the feeling they could push them in S3 they are playing a lot with the timeline.
Ygritte please! Inquiring minds want to know.
For some reason I always pictured Rachelle Lefevre as Ygritte.
Very good idea!
wow, she is pretty… maybe too beautiful actually
I was looking of the Ygritte art pic on the wiki and she would be perfect indeed. Her hair are exactly how I imagined Ygritte hair. And she is from Montreal just like me :p
I’m thinking that we might not hear for a while since Ygritte probably wouldn’t show up until the last two episodes or so.
I might try to steer clear of this–he’ll always be quiet, kind JLB Matekoni to me!
These daily updates on who was cast on Game of Thrones would be a lot more interesting if anyone had ever heard of any of these actors. I’m all for British stage actors being cast in the show, but why the big press release over people with no name?
I’ve heard of and seen things with a good number of the actors cast. You’d be suprised how many people have heard of at least one or two of them. Personally the only ones I have never seen before are the ones who were cast as Melisandre and the Assasin.
the reason is because people are waiting to hear who is cast as their favorite characters. It doesn’t matter if they are super famous or not.
Exactly. Some of us fans just want to put faces to characters.
Yeah, we all have our own ideas of what the characters look like, so it’s always cool to have a face. And you can tell these posts get a lot of attention just from looking at how many comments there are.
He is exactly as I pictured him in the book YEA
i hope they keep the reeds mainly because of the role they play in bran’s quest for the crow and the journey north o the wall
Why are all the black characters “bad guys” in GRRM’s series? First Xaro, now Sallador. I know Martin is big on “medieval realism” (when it suits his purposes, but ultimately, aSoIaF is fantasy) but I mean can you give us at least one good guy who is a minority/person of colour?
Salladhor Saan is absolutely not a bad guy. A man of flexible morals, yes, but he’s more a good guy and a friend of Davos the Onion Knight.
I’m guessing you haven’t read the books, because there are plenty of good guy minorities, but in Season 1 what about Khal Drogo?
You guess wrong. On whether SS is a bad guy, we’ll agree to disagree. In the world of aSoIaF, usually when a character abandons their friends, they are bad guys. Mutiny is not a heroic trait. Khal Drogo wasn’t a good guy. Fan favorite, okay, but not good guy.
I think what’s indisputable is that there are no main characters who are good guy minorities on the level of Jon or Tyrion. I’m trying to think of secondary or tertiary characters who fit the bill. Not a lot, as you claim, and they are all minor. Whatever, I don’t really care. Just find it kind of annoying.
Drogon is black…. just sayin.
I tell you all– READ THE BOOKS!!!!! I’ve read them all so far – all 5 – watched the HBO programs – and I’m rereading the books a second time. I’m loving them as much now as I did the first time. I want to make sure the second season is as true as the first . I think the casting is incredible and the work is awesome!! LOVE IT ALL!!!!