Game of Thrones Gets Its First New Cast Member for Season Seven: Jim Broadbent

Game of Thrones is already prepping for its next season, which is a comforting thought considering that delay, and now we know the first new actor cast for season seven: it’s everybody’s favorite lovable, British dad, Jim Broadbent.

There’s no word yet on who he’s playing, but what fun is talking about Game of Thrones if we don’t wildly speculate about every minor detail and piece of news?

The show barreled past George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire last season, but there is one storyline where the show lags behind, and that’s good old Samwell Tarly’s. In the show, Sam has only just arrived at Oldtown, where Game of Thrones’s resident scientists, historians and advisors known as maesters do their studying and training, but in the books we’ve met some characters there who are definitely going to turn out to be important players. The most notable, and Broadbent-like, is Archmaester Marwyn who, without giving much away, isn’t your traditional maester. Broadbent has the range to play the knowledgeable maester type with a bit of mystery, so if we had to put money down, we’d guess that’s who he’s playing.

Considering he’s a rather big name, we don’t expect for Broadbent to stick around very long. It’s like the casting of Ian McShane or Jonathan Pryce, the two most noteworthy new additions to last season, who did their things and then were shuffled off this mortal coil by season’s end. (Note: If that’s a spoiler for you, why are you reading this?)

Game of Thrones’ penultimate season will premiere sometime during the summer of 2017, and will run for seven episodes. After that, we’ll only have six more episodes before the epic HBO series is done for good.