Features and Columns · TV

Jason Momoa In Northern Ireland: A Game of Thrones Quandary

By  · Published on August 22nd, 2016

What does it all mean?!

With Game of Thrones pushing back production until later in the year (Because Winter Has Come), we’ve had very little upon which to speculate. Little casting tidbits for background actors, some rumblings about George R.R. Martin’s next book nearing completion, and a Comic-Con video showing spears and armor being built, but nothing more.

Yet while it’s still very early in the process, that won’t stop Game of Thrones obsessives from obsessing over every little thing. Like these two Instagram posts from Khal Drogo himself, Jason Momoa:

What this infers is that Momoa is happy to be back in Ireland for some Drogo-related reason. Perhaps a little pre-production (costume fittings, which are ongoing) on the return of Daenerys’ long-dead Sun and Stars? Maybe. Let’s run down a list of reasons why Jason Momoa might be in Northern Ireland in late August:

  1. He needs a break from Zack Snyder’s Justice League production (which is either nearly finished or already wrapped in London) and knows that Ireland has the best pubs.
  2. Producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss are trolling fans as they did last year when Sibel Kekilli visited the set and appeared to be back in costume as Shae, only to appear nowhere in season 6.
  3. He’s there for a Drogo costume fitting for some kind of Daenerys flashback.
  4. He’s there for a make-up test to come back as a members of the undead (very unlikely, as his body was burned) – I’m trying to take this seriously, folks.
  5. His trip is sponsored by @Guinness and Game of Thrones is a red hot cross-promotional partner right now.

All of these are feasible – with the exception of Zombie Drogo, I threw that one in there because I like lists numbering one to five – and equally likely. What we don’t know about Game of Thrones season 7 is essentially everything. We know where our characters left off, where we expect them to go based on years of diligent study, and that’s about it. Until shooting begins (likely in late September/early October) and people start talking, we’ll continue to be left with airport arrivals and Belfast pub sightings.

The real question: what would be the point of bringing Drogo back?

Perhaps our heroine, the future Mad Queen of Westeros, gets off track and needs a vision to remind her of her true purpose as conquerer. That would be a quintessentially Dany thing, would it not?

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Neil Miller is the persistently-bearded Publisher of Film School Rejects, Nonfics, and One Perfect Shot. He's also the Executive Producer of the One Perfect Shot TV show (currently streaming on HBO Max) and the co-host of Trial By Content on The Ringer Podcast Network. He can be found on Twitter here: @rejects (He/Him)