‘Game of Thrones’ season 4 spoilers: George R.R. Martin on Pedro Pascal casting
So how does George R.R. Martin feel about actor Pedro Pascal being cast as the Red Viper on “Game of Thrones” season 4? For fans familiar with the actor’s overall body of work, this could largely be seen as a major reason to celebrate. However, this casting has also been met with a little bit of division, primarily from those who felt that the character should have been played by a character with darker skin to reflect the appearance in the book.
Anytime you bring up the subject of race it can be controversial, but on his Not a Blog page, the A Song of Ice and Fire author gives a smart, insightful take on the diversity of the show’s casting, while also pointing out that the show is more keen to cast the actor right for each role rather than focusing entirely on race while doing so:
“I wasn’t present for Pedro Pascal’s audition, but I understand that he really killed it with his reading. And since his casting was announced, the producer of another TV show on which he appeared recently has written me to say how terrific Pascal is, and to congratulate us on the casting. So I suspect that he will turn out to be a wonderful Red Viper.
“I do know that David and Dan and HBO do favor having a racially and ethnically diverse cast on the series. It is true that we’ve lost several black characters who appear in the novels (Chataya and Alayaya, Jalabhar Xho, Strong Belwas), but to balance that, characters like Salladhor Saan and Xaro Xhoan Daxos, both white in the books, have been played by black actors. Missandei as well, though in the books the Naathi are golden-skinned, not white.”
Do we think that “Game of Thrones” fans are really going to have a problem with this casting at all once they see the Viper in action? We don’t think so, given that we are looking at a fantastic actor here who should bring some life in to one of the series’ most-heroic characters.
Want to read some more “Game of Thrones” Comic-Con scoop? For more on that and the show’s plans at present to film in multiple parts of Croatia, be sure to check out the story over at the link here.
Photo: HBO