I said that the big man could tell you the latest casting news. That's because the big guy is Ian McNeice, a veteran British character actor most recently seen on HBO as the newsreader in ROME. He's done a million other parts as well, of course. In A GAME OF THRONES, he'll be playing Illyrio Mopatis, Magister of the Free City of Pentos, merchant prince, and arch- conspirator.





There is one character with a speaking part in the HBO pilot who did not appear in my novel. In the early drafts ...