‘Game of Thrones’ season 3 spoilers: Notes on Iceland, John Bradley, PCAs

Want to know what is going on in the “Game of Thrones” universe at the moment? Luckily, we have a trifecta of scoops that we are happy to share, beginning with a brief tease about the end of the first day of official filming in Iceland.

Over the past week, we have shared some details including the characters for sure appearing for scenes Beyond the Wall (Kit Harrington, Rose Leslie, Cirian Hinds, many extras), the location in the northern part of the country, and even some speculation about how the filming process may be different for season 3 than in years past. Now, we also have the first tweet from location courtesy of David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ assistant Cat Taylor, who also writes the Making of Game of Thrones blog:

“First day of Icelandic shooting finished off nicely with a trip to the thermal pools in the snow.”

For any of those curious, Taylor was talking about a real-life visit to the spa, not something actually happening on the show. (Sorry, spoiler-hunters!) Now, let’s start on some of the other stories from the world of Westeros and beyond:

John Bradley on “Merlin” – Just in case you cannot wait until March 31 to see more of the man behind Samwell on the small screen, the actor will be appearing on Saturday night’s edition of “Merlin” over on BBC One. You can see the first photo of him from the show’s set (complete with crazy beard to the left), here is the official synopsis for his episode:

“Darkness steals into the very heart of Camelot as Morgana and her puppet queen hatch a sinister plan to murder the king. But when stable hand Tyr Seward becomes caught in the crossfire, he threatens to ruin everything… As the plot thickens and reaches its deadly climax, can a suspicious Merlin unravel the truth before it is too late?”

Don’t you love that no matter what show Bradley is in, he always manages still to get in the thick of it?

Finally … Here’s a reminder to go over a vote for “Game of Thrones” for Favorite Premium Cable TV Show for the 2012 People’s Choice Awards, if you want to see it win. Yes, it’s ridiculous how many categories they have, but let’s at least be happy that the PCAs are at least giving the show this much given how they are typically dominated by programs airing on network TV with more “mainstream” audiences (though cable is quickly becoming the new mainstream).