‘Game of Thrones’ season 7: Freddie Stroma not returning as Dickon Tarly
Sometimes, what is good for an actor is not necessarily good for a show that they’re a part of. In the case of Freddie Stroma and “Game of Thrones,” it unfortunately this seems to be a prime example of this very thing right.
Speaking at the TCA Winter Press Tour this week while promoting his new ABC series “Time After Time” (premiering a little bit later in the spring), the actor revealed to IGN that his new commitments kept him from going back and doing anything else on “Game of Thrones” as Dickon Tarly, the aptly-named brother of Samwell who appeared during one particularly notable episode this past season:
“Even just to get such a toe in there is fun … Just to be on set and kind of feel like I was in that world, I was a fan sitting there at the table doing that scene.”
There are rumors that Dickon will return and the role will be recast, and if this is the case, this does harken back to a certain extent to one of the biggest problems that “Game of Thrones” as a series effectively faces: A struggle keeping their enormous recurring cast together. Dickon would be far from the first character who has been played by multiple actors, given that we’ve seen it with King Tommen, Daario, and The Mountain. The Daario recasting is arguably the most notable, largely because the two actors did not bear much in the way of physical similarity to each other making it a little startling for viewers to wrap their heads around.
In the case of Stroma, maybe it was somewhat of a surprise that he was cast in the first place given that coming off of “UnREAL” on Lifetime, he proved himself to be a rather hot commodity. There were going to be many interested parties in getting him on another TV show, and given that “Game of Thrones” films primarily in Northern Ireland, it’s not easy to travel there while still balancing a full-time job elsewhere.
Are you excited for Stroma’s new show, and do you even remember Dickon all that much given all of the other craziness that happened over the course of season 6? Share your thoughts on the story in the comments, and head over here to secure some other news regarding “Game of Thrones.” (Photo: HBO.)