Luther, Rome Actress To Join Game Of Thrones Season 4

Game of Thrones recently announced yet another new casting: Indira Varma (veteran of Luther, where she played the titular character’s ex-wife, Torchwood, and Rome) will be joining the Dornishmen as they begin to make their way onto the screen in the coming season.

So who is she playing? Check it out under the cut, and beware vague Game of Thrones spoilers!

From Entertainment Weekly:

Varma will play Ellaria Sand on the show, the sexually adventurous paramour of a key new character, Prince Oberyn Martell “The Red Viper” (played by Pedro Pascal).

Yes, dear readers, we are finally getting our badass Dornish ladies, the Sand-Snakes. Varma is no stranger to period-set stories with lots of bloodshed, having gotten attention for her role of Niobe in Rome.

Dorne is one of my favorite places in Westeros for obvious reasons: lots of awesome women characters. Dorne is the one country in Westeros that acknowledges women in official political leadership positions, and generally has bi-lateral inheritance lines. Since it was founded by Nymeria, conquerer and Arya’s direwolf’s namesake, they can’t exactly deny that women can rule as well as any man can. In fact, the heir to Dorne circa the start of season four will be Arianne of Sunspear, princess of the Martell family. Also, generally women from Dorne have the reputation of being fiery, bold, independent, and fierce. I can defnitely get excited about that.

Showrunner David Benioff seems as excited for season four as anyone, saying it will “surpass” the last three seasons. That’s big talk for a guy who just put us through the Red Wedding and Danaerys’ siege on the slaver’s city. He is confident, however:

It’s a brutal shooting season ahead. But if we can make it through, yeah, I think it’s going to surpass season three. The last 3 episodes, there’s so many scenes we’ve been waiting for so long to do. And it just gets more and more fun to write for these characters. After three years of doing it, we have that much more comfort to make everything uncomfortable for them. We’re very excited for it.

(via Entertainment Weekly)

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