As we’ve all been suspecting since a very excitable stage mom took to Twitter and revealed that her daughter had read for the role of “Young Cersei,” the upcoming fifth season of Game of Thrones will indeed feature flashbacks. The news was confirmed yesterday by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss in a Q&A in Spain, where the show is currently filming.
“Making the first season, we set a rule: No prophecies, dreams, or flashbacks. We already failed the first two, and this season we broke the third. So yes, this season will finally have flashbacks.” [Los Siete Reinos]
The introduction of flashbacks raises a number of questions, some of them plot-related and some of them “Wait, are you just trying to stretch things out to give George R.R. Martin more time to write so you don’t start lapping him?”-related, but the most interesting part of this news, in my opinion, is that Young Cersei Lannister must have been awful. Just awful. Go ahead, picture in your head what she must have been like at, say, 17 years old. The best I’ve got after about five minutes of thought is Evil Regina George, and I don’t even know if that does it justice. It’s legitimately fascinating to me. In fact, you know what, why don’t we just spin the whole damn thing off with teenaged versions of all the characters and call it Westeros Hills 90210? You’d watch. Don’t lie.
