Game of Thrones has already starting casting for next year

We know, it’s weird to be looking ahead when there’s still a bit of season 6 to go – we don’t even know which current characters will survive the next two episodes – but according to fan site Watchers on the Wall the programme-makers have already begun looking for new actors to join all the murderous fun in Westeros.

According to the site, the series is currently searching for a 16-year-old Northern girl, aka a young woman (of Caucasian origin) who can approximate the northern accent, who is set to take place in “a high-stakes scene with leading cast members.” Alongside her will be a 10-year-old Northern boy, who will apparently be taking part in the same important scene (though we don’t have more details than that at the moment).

Now it’s difficult to guess who these characters will turn out to be, as the TV series has long gone past the source novels by George RR Martin which used to help predict these sort of things – but we can still have a bit of a guess. Perhaps this duo are a recasting of Lyanna Stark (sister of deceased Lord of Winterfell Ned Stark) and Benjen Stark (played as an adult by Joseph Mawle), who appeared in one of Bran’s flashbacks as younger children earlier this season (see above video).

Notably, fans have been quick to point out that the series has yet to flash back to a pivotal event in young Lyanna’s life called the Tourney at Harrenhal, where the books strongly hint that Lyanna dressed up as a mystery Knight to defend the honour of a young boy being bullied by squires (the boy, Howland Reed, grew up to be the father of series characters Jojen and Meera Reed, and it could be that the 10-year-old boy is supposed to be him).

Alternatively, the young girl could be playing Alys Karstark in part of another unused book storyline, which saw the daughter of Lord Rickard Karstark (the Lord executed by Robb Stark in season 3, whose son joined Ramsay’s cause this season) married off to a Wildling chieftain in order to foster peace between the people on both sides of the Wall.

While it’s someone else in the books, this could be the perfect fish-out-of-water storyline for Kristofer Hivju’s wildling Tormund Giantsbane – after all, it’s not like he’s been having much luck with Brienne so far….

Alternatively, as noted above, it could be that these new characters are brand-new additions for the show that it’d be completely impossible to predict, as with much of the TV series these days.

But gosh darn it, if Gendry can keep rowing for all these years we can push forward with this as well. It is our nature.

Game of Thrones continues on Sky Atlantic this Monday at 2am and 9.00pm