In the Game of Thrones season seven finale, Cersei Lannister tells her dumbstruck brother-lover Jaime that Euron Greyjoy, who made a big huff about not wanting anything to do with the White Walkers in their big meeting with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, hasn’t abandoned her cause. In fact, he’s sailing with his Iron Islands fleet to Essos to, as Cersei puts it, “ferry the Golden Company back here to help us win the war for Westeros.”
The Golden Company are a 20,000-strong army (that includes horses and elephants) of the finest sellswords in the Free Cities. With their help, and now that Dany is down a dragon, they could swing momentum back to the Lannisters. One problem, though: isn’t Daario, the Mother of Dragons’ former flame who she left in Meereen to keep peace, the Golden Company leader?
It was one of the show’s most credible fan theories heading into the final season, that Daario would secretly assist Daenerys despite pledging his loyalty to Cersei. Unfortunately, it’s already been debunked: according to Watchers on the Wall, the leader of the Golden Company has just been cast.
According to his Spotlight CV and his agency, German actor Marc Rissmann will “join the cast of Game of Thrones in the eighth and final season of the show.” The actor’s resume helpfully tells us exactly which role he’ll be playing in the season, and it will ring a bell with readers of George R.R. Martin’s books: Harry Strickland, leader of the mercenary group known as the Golden Company! (Via)
Strickland, who has a weird name in that it’s a totally normal name (I think there’s a Harry Strickland in our HR department), is one of Game of Thrones‘ final book-to-show characters; he also has a damn fine beard. Daario could still pop back up, either as a soldier in the Golden Company or with the Second Sons, and hopefully if/when he does, he finally has his blue hair.
(Via Watchers on the Wall)
