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GAME OF THRONES: Season 2: Full List of New Characters/Actors

Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones, Fire and Blood

Full listing of Game of Thrones Season 2 New Characters and Actors. Major and minor characters for Game of Thrones: Season 2 have been casting for months now. We have compiled a list of them all from different sources so that you will know what characters will be in Season 2 of HBO‘s Game of Thrones and who would be playing them. There are major spoilers below, especially if you have not read the A Song of Ice and Fire books so be warned. I personally have only shimmed over the detailed information below as I want characters and their motivations kept in shadow as much as possible. The list will be updated when new characters are cast so you might want to bookmark this page.

We previously posted on casting for Season 2 of Game of Thrones here: Game of Thrones: Season 2 Casts Liam Cunningham, Carice van Houten, Stephen Dillane, here: Game of Thrones: Season 2 Casts Michael McElhatton, Robert Pugh, Hannah Murray, and here: Game of Thrones: Season 2 Casts Gwendoline Christie (Brienne Tarth).

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The full listing of the new characters/actors for Game of Thrones: Season 2:

Simon Armstrong
Character: Qhorin Halfhand

Character Details: Night’s Watch hardcase Qhorin Halfhand. Qhorin Halfhand is a veteran of the Night’s Watch who teams up with Jon Snow for a very dangerous mission at the beginning of the second book in the series. Expect the show to follow suit there. He is well known to The Wildlings because of the vast number of them he has killed, a reminder of which he carries on his shortened hand

Rose Leslie
Character: Ygritte

Character Details: A wildling woman with red hair that Jon Snow meets beyond the wall. She is a strong willed, battle hardened survivor of the wilderness with hair described by other Wildlings as being “kissed by fire”.

Tony Way
Character: Dontos Hollard

Character Description: a knight of King’s Landing. The character had a minor part in the first novel but didn’t appear in the first TV season due to extremely limited screen-time. Dontos will have a more significant role in the second season though, as he did in the novel ‘Clash of Kings’, in which these episodes are based upon. Dontos has a bit of a drinking problem and opted to stay behind at King’s Landing instead of participating in the War of the Five Kings.

Dontos Hollard is a bumbling knight that befriends Sansa Stark, who remains at court in King’s Landing.
Sam Callis as Gold Cloak.

Andy Beckwith
Character: Rorge

Character Description: During the end of season one, fans catch a very brief glimpse of Rorge in a cage. The convoy of prisoners are headed towards the wall for possible enlistment into the Night’s Watch or worse. The actor has been replaced for the second season, likely due to an increased amount of screen time planned for the character. Rorge is apparently a despicable outlaw and is nose-less in the novels from author George R.R. Martin.

John Stahl
Character: Rickard Karstark

Character Description: Rickard Karstark is a bannermen to King Robb Stark of Winterfell and joins him in his war against the Lannisters.

Steven Cole
Character: Kovarro

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Character Description: based on Cole being in Dubrovnik and the fact that he’s been taking a lot of horseback riding lessons lately, I’m going to assume that Kovarro is a Dothraki character.

Nicholas Blane
Character: Spice King

Character Description: No character with that title exists in the book but I think it is a pretty safe bet that he is the leader of the Ancient Guild of Spicers, one of the merhcant groups vying for control of the city of Qarth. The Spicers Guild commands a very large fleet of ships, and although I don’t think Dany ever meets with them in the book, it is a change that makes sense. Actor Nicholas Blane will be playing the so-called Spice King in the series.

Stephen Dillane
Character: Stannis Baratheon

Character Details: Stannis is the younger brother of the late King Robert and the older brother of the self-declared King Renly. Of everyone in Westeros, Stannis has the best claim to the throne, considering that the newly crowned King Joffrey is actually the bastard son of Robert’s wife Cersei and her twin brother Jaime.

Stannis isn’t very congenial, and isn’t very well-liked. He is counseled by the mysterious and dangerous Lady Melisandre, a priestess of a new and powerful religion who isn’t afraid to use her mystical powers to Stannis’s gain.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Dillane has been on HBO before with the historical miniseries John Adams, in which he played founding father Thomas Jefferson. He played the mysterious Merlin in the 2004 adaptation of the King Arthur legend (the one that starred Clive Owen and Keira Knightley). Most recently he appeared in the Ewan McGregor and Eva Green-starring film Perfect Sense.

Gwendoline Christie
Character: Brienne of Tarth

Character Details: Also known as the Warrior-Maid of Tarth, and (derisively) Brienne the Beauty, Brienne is a freakishly tall and uncannily ugly aspiring knight, who comes to serve Lord Renly as part of his Rainbow Guard (yes, one of Westeros’s few gay characters employs a ‘Rainbow Guard’). Brienne secretly harbors affections for Renly, though he either is oblivious to them or chooses to ignore them. Despite this attraction, however, Brienne is more than a competent knight — however, don’t expect that to gain her any respect in the male-dominated society of Westeros.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: Like many of these new faces, Christie hasn’t been in a lot (she’s primarily a model). Christie appeared in a bit role in Terry Gilliam’s mind-bending film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (which you might remember as Heath Ledger’s final film). Throw in an appearance in the BBC documentary The Seven Ages of Britain and you’ve got the entirety of Christie’s filmography. Seriously, that’s it.

By the way, for those of you wondering if Christie is too pretty to portray Brienne, have no fear; writer George R.R. Martin says she showed up to the audition sans make-up, looking just like he’d imagined Lady Brienne.

Nonso Anozie
Character: Xaro Xhoan Daxos

Character Details: Daenerys, after the death of her Sun-and-Stars, Khal Drogo, will move on to the merchant city of Quarth, where she intends to look for ways to travel back to Westeros — after she’s built up an army with which to do so. One of the characters she’ll meet from Qarth is the elaborately named Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a Qartheen merchant who owns the ships that Daenerys needs. He’ll offer her guidance as she faces various challenges, though he doesn’t exactly come off as the most trustworthy character.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Anozie’s first film credit comes from the final season of the British police drama Prime Suspect. You might have seen him in Guy Ritchie’s most recent gangster flick, RocknRolla. He appeared in the Keira Knightly-starring Atonement, and starred in the short-lived British series Occupation alongside actors James Nesbitt and Stephen Graham. Anozie will appear, coincidentally enough, in the upcoming film Conan the Barbarian, which stars Game of Thrones alum Jason Momoa, who on the show played Daenery’s late husband, Khal Drogo.

Karl Davies
Character: Alton Lannister

Character Details: Well, here’s the thing: nobody really knows who he is. Alton Lannister isn’t a character in any of the five existing A Song of Ice and Fire books. The best guess of most fans is that Alton will fill the role of Cleos Frey from the books. Frey, who doesn’t come into importance until the third book, is the result of a Lannister/Frey marriage, and it could be likely that Alton Lannister is the result of the writers wanting to put a stress on his Lannister heritage. If he is filling the role of Cleos, it’s likely that we’ll see him as a prisoner of war alongside Jaime Lannister in Robb Stark’s camp when the second season starts. He is of lesser importance to the Lannisters than Jaime, of course, but his Lannister heritage still holds weight with his family.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Davies has made several appearances on British television, but Game of Thrones will be his first foray into an American production. In the U.K., Davies has appeared in the television staple Midsomer Murders, starred in the Stephen Fry series Kingdom, and appeared in a regular capacity on the British soap Emmerdale from 2001 to 2005.

Tom Wlaschiha
Character: Jaqen H’ghar

Character Details: Much like the actor who portrays him, Jaqen H’ghar doesn’t have the easiest name to spell. But phonetics isn’t the only mystery surrounding the character of H’ghar, who we glimpsed briefly in the season one finale. We didn’t see his face, of course; he was shrouded under a hood. He was also chained in a cage with two other nasty-looking characters.

H’ghar is part of Arya Stark’s season two storyline, and he’s one of the reasons that it’s one of the most interesting arcs of the season. It’s really difficult to say anything more without spoiling some plot details, so I’ll just say this: he’ll probably be one of the characters you talk about all season long.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Wlaschiha is a German actor, and he’s been in a lot of German films. What, you haven’t seen Bergkristall? What about Die Nacht, in der ganz ehrlich überhaupt niemand Sex hatte? No again?

Of course, Wlaschiha has been in a few English-language productions — he’s a polyglot, and can speak five languages. He was in the Tom Cruise film Valkyrie alongside fellow Game of Thrones newcomer Carice van Houten, and recently appeared in a two-parter episode of the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures. Speaking of Doctor Who, Wlaschiha appeared in the Matt Smith-starring television movie Christopher and His Kind last year.

Oona Chaplin
Character: Jeyne Westerling

Character Details: It’s likely that we’ll be seeing more of Robb Stark in the second season of Game of Thrones than we did in the second book of the series, which is why we’re getting introduced to Jeyne Westerling much earlier than we were in the books. Robb meets Jeyne after he is wounded in battle and she tends to him. Yes, this story is going exactly where you think it is.

The producers have promised us a love story for the show’s second season, and the dynamic between Robb and Jeyne is that love story. There’s something standing in the way of their happiness, though: Robb’s already engaged in a political betrothal with a girl from House Frey. Expect dramatic tension to result.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: Well, she is Charlie Chaplin’s granddaughter, but she’s not just riding on her family name. She appeared in the most recent James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, in a bit role as a receptionist. She’s appeared in a few Spanish-language films as well. Most recently, she’s starring in the British series The Hour, in which she plays the wife of television personality Hector Madden.

Liam Cunningham
Character: Davos Seaworth

Character Details: Davos is also known by his nickname “The Onion Knight,” which he received after he smuggled various foods (including onions) to Stannis Baratheon during the siege of Storm’s End. Stannis granted him a knighthood, but also commanded that Davos pay for his crimes by losing digits off each finger of his left hand. Seeing wisdom in Stannis’s justice, Davos became one of Stannis’s most loyal followers and one of his most trusted advisors, going so far as to wear the bones of his severed digits in a bag around his neck for luck.

By the time season 2 starts, Stannis has declared himself king, and Davos is growing wearing of Lady Melisandre, who is attempting to eradicate the traditional religion of the Seven and replace it with worship of her god, R’hllor, the Lord of Light. It’s through Davos’s eyes that we’ll see the storylines of Stannis and Melisandre.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Cunningham most recently appeared in an episode of Starz’s short-lived series Camelot. He also starred in the BBC series Outcasts earlier this year, playing the lead role of Richard Tate. In 2010, he was in the 3D actioner Clash of the Titans, and in the year before he appeared in the film Harry Brown alongside Michael Caine. My favorite of Cunningham’s roles was his starring turn in the fourth series of the British cop series Murphy’s Law, in which he played a reformed gang leader. His nuanced performance gives me plenty of confidence that Cunningham will be the perfect Davos.

Gemma Whelan
Character: Yara Greyjoy

Character Details: In the books, her name is Asha Greyjoy. She’s Theon Greyjoy’s long-lost sister. Well, rather, Theon is her long-lost brother. She’s a clever, cunning, and fierce warrior who commands her own fleet of ships. Raised by her father as an heir, Yara will clash with Theon after their unusual reunion.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: Whelan is best known as a stand-up comedienne, but she’s had a few film roles. She appeared in last year’s thriller The Wolfman alongside Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins before appearing in the Jack Black comedy film Gulliver’s Travels.

Natalie Dormer
Character: Margaery Tyrell

Character Details: Margaery Tyrell is the bride of the self-proclaimed King Renly Baratheon. This very political marriage allied the powerful House Tyrell with Renly, making his claim to the throne even more divisive for Westeros. It should be no surprise that Margaery’s marriage with Renly is loveless; Renly is carrying on an affair with Margaery’s brother Loras, “The Knight of Flowers.” While that relationship was only hinted at in the book series, it was blatantly shown in the show’s first season, which could possibly give the relationship between Renly, Margaery, and Loras a different angle than it had in the book.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: You’ve almost certainly seen her in her star turn as King Henry VIII’s ill-fated second wife Anne Boleyn in the Showtime series The Tudors. She had a small role in this summer’s Captain America: The First Avenger as an enamored fan of the titular superhero. Earlier this year, Dormer starred in the British series Silk, and last year she had a recurring role in the British drama The Fades.

Michael McElhatton
Character: Roose Bolton

Character Details: Roose Bolton is a nasty character. While he’s a liege lord of the King in the North Robb Stark, that doesn’t make him a good person. He’s quite ruthless and cunning, despite appearing normal and mild-mannered. The Game of Thrones equivalent of a health freak, Bolton undergoes leechings to ‘cleanse’ himself, and as such gains the name “The Leech Lord.” He has a bastard son, Ramsay, who’s even more ruthless than he is. Of the characters we’ve met in the first season, Bolton will most likely interact with Arya Stark the most during the show’s sophomore season.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Earlier this year, McElhatton appeared in an episode of Masterpiece Mystery’s new series Zen. Before that, he appeared in such British shows as Your Bad Self and Father & Son. In 2006, he starred in the series Hide & Seek as Paul Holden, a man struggling with nightmares revolving around a childhood tragedy. The only role I’ve seen McElhatton in was a turn in the third series of Irish cop show Single-Handed (on DVD now), in which he portrayed a vaguely threatening superior to the main character. Judging from that performance, I think he can very easily capture the ruthless character of Roose Bolton.

Robert Pugh
Character: Craster

Character Details: Craster’s a nasty fellow, one of the nastiest we’ll meet on Game of Thrones. He’s a wildling who lives north of the wall, and though he is hospitable to the traveling members of the Night’s Watch, that doesn’t mean he is by any stretch of the imagination a good person. Let me put it to you this way: his family has more incest than the Lannisters.

Craster has nineteen wives, most of whom are his own daughters. You read that right. Whenever he has a new daughter, he waits for her to grow up before she becomes his wife, too. And his sons… Well, he very mysteriously doesn’t have any sons.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: In his long and illustrious career, Pugh has appeared in dozens of British television productions. He appeared in the final series of the hit cop drama Prime Suspect, and episodes of Marple, New Tricks, Shameless, Midsomer Murders, Robin Hood, Accused, and Waking the Dead. Last year he appeared in the two-part Doctor Who story “The Hungry Earth”/”Cold Blood.” His biggest role to date has been in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Hannah Murray
Character: Gilly

Character Details: One of Craster’s daughters is a girl named Gilly. Pregnant with Craster’s child, Gilly is afraid of what her father-husband will do if she gives birth to a son — according to her, he’ll take it into the wilderness and sacrifice it. She pleads with Samwell Tarly for help, and he agrees, sending her to Jon Snow, much to the latter’s annoyance.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: Most famous for starring as Cassie in the U.K. teen series Skins, Murray appeared in the role from 2007 to 2008. She was later rumored to be in the running for a role as a companion to Matt Smith’s newly regenerated Eleventh Doctor before Doctor Who’s fifth season, though the role eventually went to actress Karen Gillan.

Oliver Ford Davies
Character: Maester Cressen

Character Details: We’ll be introduced to Stannis Baratheon, Lady Melisandre, and Davos Seaworth through the eyes of the aging Maester Cressen, an advisor to King Stannis who, in the first scene of the book, struggles against Lady Melisandre for Stannis’s favor. After Cressen is humiliated for his efforts, he concocts a scheme to once again become the King’s most trusted advisor — though things don’t turn out the way he would have hoped thanks to the power of Lady Melisandre.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Davies, despite having a pretty long career, has never really been in anything big, save for a bit role in the Star Wars prequel trilogy (he played Sio Bibble, the creatively named advisor to Queen Amidala and later to the future queen). When not playing advisors to monarchs, Davies has appeared in such films as 2009’s David Tennant-starring Hamlet, in which he played Polonius. Oh, wait. Polonius was an advisor in that, too. It seems that even in Game of Thrones, Davies has been typecast. It appears he’ll be more than capable of playing the relatively small role.

Carice van Houten
Character: Lady Melisandre

Character Details: She’s probably the most-talked-about new character of the second season: Lady Melisandre is as mysterious as she is dangerous. Known as the “Red Priestess,” Melisandre worships the ‘Lord of Light,’ a deity known as R’hllor, through whom she can apparently perform feats of magic. Melisandre serves as an advisor to King Stannis and almost never leaves his side. A proponent of eradicating the old religions of Westeros and replaceing them with her new one, Melisandre believes that R’hllor wants Stannis to gain the Iron Throne, and she’ll do anything — and kill anyone — to get him there.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: Dutch actress Carice van Houten has been in very few well-known productions. She had a large role in the 2008 Tom Cruise film Valkyrie. In 2010 she appeared in the Jude Law and Forest Whitaker-starring film Repo Men, and starred in the 2006 war film Black Book. She appeared as Ava in the Dutch incarnation of In Treatment (titled In therapie), and will soon appear in the biopic Vivaldi alongside Elle Fanning and Alfred Molina.

Roy Dotrice
Character: Hallyne the Pyromancer

Character Details: Out of all of these new characters, there haven’t been any additions to the King’s Landing side of the story, where Joffrey has just been crowned king. Tyrion Lannister is on his way to serve as Hand of the King at his father’s behest, and one of his duties as Hand will be to ensure that King’s Landing has proper defenses for the sure-to-come battles with the rival, self-declared kings.

To do this, Tyrion will employ pyromancer Hallyne to create a secret weapon that will turn the tide of battle should it ever come to be used. As head of the Alchemist’s Guild, Hallyne agrees to help Tyrion with this new weapon, which, as you guessed from Hallyne’s title, will involve fire.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Dotrice got his role in this series because he read the audiobooks for the Song of Ice and Fire series, on which Game of Thrones is based. Dotrice had previously appeared in the series Beauty and the Beast, on which Song of Ice and Fire author and Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin was a writer. Dotrice’s biggest role might be as Leopold Mozart in the 1984 Best Picture winner Amadeus. Most recently, Dotrice appeared as King Balor in the 2008 film Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Dotrice was almost cast in Game of Thrones season one as Grand Maester Pycelle, though an illness forced him to opt out of the role, which was then given to Julian Glover.

Ben Crompton
Character: “Dolorous Edd” Tollett

Character Details: Edd is a sad-sack member of the Night’s Watch who ventures north of the wall with Lord Commander Jeor Mormont and Jon Snow. He’s a minor character at best, but he injects a little bit of humor into the bleak, snow-covered scenes he’s in.

Think of him as Game of Thrones’ Eeyore.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: He appeared in last year’s British TV movie Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal (out on DVD September 20). He’s also had recurring roles in British shows such as Idealand Clocking Off, and starred in the comedy series Man Stroke Woman alongside Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost. American audiences are most likely completely unfamiliar with him.

Laura Pradelska
Character: Quaithe

Character Details: Quaithe is a relatively minor character in Daenerys’ storyline for the second season. When Daenerys takes refuge in an abandoned city, she sends out members of her khalasar to explore the surrounding area. One of her bloodriders, Jhogo, returns with representatives from the city of Qarth, including Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Quaithe, a priestess. Quaithe delivers to Daenerys a prophecy that will guide Daenerys’ quest from that point forward.

What You’ve Seen Her in Before: To be honest, probably nothing. Pradelska is a stage actress, and has almost nonexistent film credits (she’s been in one short film, Ashes). Pradelska has plenty of stage credits to her name, though; the actress has appeared in twenty-one stage productions since 2008.

Described as “husky-voiced,” Pradelska is a German-American actress who currently lives in London. She speaks three languages (English, French, and German), and can do a wide variety of dialects and accents. She seems to be overly qualified for the minor role of Quaithe.

Forbes KB
Character: Lorren

Character Details: Lorren, also known as Black Lorren, comes from the Iron Islands (the homeland of Theon Greyjoy and his sister Yara). One of the fiercest of the Ironborn fighters, Lorren meets Theon after the latter returns to the Iron Islands as an envoy for King Robb. He’ll play a part throughout season 2 in the exploits of Theon.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: The Scottish KB has been increasingly prolific over the past several years, nabbing bit roles in films such as Alfonso Cuaron’s fantastic Children of Men and the less fantastic National Treasure: Book of Secrets. His television credits include guest roles in the British cop drama Ashes to Ashes and several uncredited roles in the series Rebus.

More recently, KB appeared in the film Gulliver’s Travels, alongside fellow Thrones newcomer Gemma Whelan, and the film Harry Brown, which also featured Liam Cunningham, another new face for the series.

Patrick Malahide
Character: Balon Greyjoy

Character Details: The stern father of Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) and Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan), Balon is the lord of the Iron Islands. Theon is sent to his father as an emissary on the behalf of the new King Robb early on in the season. Considering that he’s been a prisoner of the Starks for most of his adolescence, Theon doesn’t realize that there’s a lot of bad blood between House Greyjoy and House Stark, making the sell tougher than he expected.

What You’ve Seen Him in Before: Malahide has been acting since the ’70s, and has appeared in classic shows like The Singing Detective and Middlemarch. More recently, he’s had a recurring role on Law & Order: UK and appeared in a bit role in theSamuel L. Jackson episode of the HBO series Extras. In 2008, Malahide appeared in the film remake of Brideshead Revisited.

On the current production of Game of Thrones: Season 2:

The series has been filming since July, but a premiere date has not been announced. According to THR, author/executive producer George R.R. Martin revealed that he is looking forward to seeing the Battle of the Blackwater scene, which will be featured in episode 9.

“That’s got a gigantic battle that’s very ambitious and expensive. I’m looking forward o that with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation but we have a great director for that: we signed Neil Marshall to direct that episode.”

If you are new to the series, Game of Thrones is

an HBO adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy novel series “A Song of Ice and Fire”. Set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, where summers span decades and winters can last a lifetime, Game of Thrones chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among the kingdom’s seven noble families for control of the Iron Throne.

What do you think of the casting decisions so far? For more Game of Thrones videos, photos, and reviews, check out our Game of Thrones Page.

Source: Comicbookmovie, Dailyblam, WinteriscomingTvovermind

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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