User blog:Ausir/Gwendoline Christie cast as Brienne of Tarth

The crazy fans have managed to guess what yesterday's clue from George R.R. Martin was all about. As it turns out, Gwendoline Christie has been cast as Brienne of Tarth, a character that will play a major role in the upcoming second season of the show.

Christie is a British actress who has played several minor roles in films such as The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Game of Thrones is her first major role. She is 6'3" in height. It looks like she was cast partly thanks to fans of the show at Winter is Coming:


 * Interestingly, it is possible WiC.net readers had a hand in her getting the role. Her name was first mentioned back in March 2010 as a possible Brienne by commenter Mauberly. Paul Gude then took the initiative and alerted her agent to the role. And now, almost a year and a half later, she has been cast.

This is what Martin himself had to say about this casting on his blog:


 * This was another one of those cases where there was hardly any debate. The day the first batch of auditions went up for the role, we looked at a dozen actresses who were reading for Brienne and one actress who WAS Brienne. Gwendoline gave a great reading, and her look was just perfect. No, when she auditioned, she did not look she does in the photo above. She came in looking... well, like Brienne.

Minor spoilers ahead:

Brienne is the sole child of Lord Selwyn Tarth of Evenfall Hall. She grew up on Tarth, an island in the Narrow Sea off the coast of the Stormlands whose people hold fealty to House Baratheon of Storm's End. Brienne is unusually tall and broad-shouldered for a woman by Westerosi standards and developed a taste for martial activity as a child. She has grown up to become skilled at arms and dreams of becoming a knight. In season 2, Brienne will join Renly Baratheon in his efforts to win the Iron Throne.

How do you like this casting? I definitely think she'll make a great Brienne (especially if the author himself thinks so as well).