It’s that time of the year again when everyone keeps bombing me with Game of Thrones spoilers because I’m a lazy bum and I’m four seasons behind on the TV show. It’s one of the best things to happen to the world of entertainment in the last years, and it’s – apparently – only getting better as the seasons progress.
The one thing very few people notice however, are the cameos included in the show. They’re often very subtle and only a few seconds of screen time, but they’re a nice nod to fans of the show and/or people that the show’s creators are fans of. Let’s take a look.
Ed Sheeran
Let’s get the easy one out of the way: Ed Sheeran was in the season 7 premiere. Ed’s cameo made quite some waves on social media and it’s also one of the easier cameos to spot – mainly due to his fame and the fact that his face is in close-up.
Mastodon
The entire metal band was in an episode where they were killed and resurrected as White Walkers. They also have a song called White Walker that’s on the HBO Catch the Throne mixtape. Both these inclusions are testament to executive producer D.B. Weiss’ love of the band.
Roy Dotrice
Roy who now? Well, he was either Ron Perlman’s father figure on Beauty and the Beast (which was written by George R.R. Martin) or the reader of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” audiobooks. He was initially supposed to star as Grand Maester Pycelle, but he had to cancel for medical reasons. He starred briefly in season 2 as pyromancer Hallyne.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss
Being a show’s creator means it’s pretty easy to put yourself in it. In the House of Black and White, both show creators were included as faces for the Faceless Men.
Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós played The Rains of Castamere at Joffrey and Margaery’s wedding in season 4. Joffrey was not pleased with their performance, but it’s all good since he died minutes later.
Will Champion of Coldplay
Talking of people that played the Rains of Castamere in Game of Thrones: there’s been another big moment in the series where that song was played. It was given as a signal at Robb’s wedding to let everyone know it was totally cool to wipe out all the Starks. And one of the guys from Coldplay was to blame for it. Well, him and Walder Frey.
Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol
And yet another musical cameo. Gary was featured in season 3, playing the song The Bear and the Maiden Fair, ahead of a group of Bolton soldiers. This was mainly done to introduce the audience to this song, which would be heavily referenced in a later episode.
