Season 5

Season 5 of Game of Thrones was commissioned by HBO on 8 April 2014, following a substantial increase in audience figures between the third and fourth seasons. The fifth and sixth seasons were commissioned simultaneously, the first time HBO has commissioned two seasons at once for a major drama series.

The season consists of ten episodes. It began filming in July 2014 and concluded on 12 December 2014. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss return as executive producers and showrunners for both seasons five and six, having signed a new two-year contract with HBO in early 2014. The season will premiere in April 2015.

Season 5 will be based mostly on the fourth and fifth novels of the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, which are titled A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, respectively. The storylines of the two books run concurrently but follow different sets of characters.

Plot
The War of the Five Kings, once thought to be drawing to a close, is instead entering a new and more chaotic phase. Westeros is on the brink of collapse, and many are seizing what they can while the realm implodes, like a corpse making a feast for crows. Tywin Lannister is dead, shot on the privy by his long-abused dwarf son Tyrion. The crazed boy-king Joffrey Baratheon, Tywin's grandson, is also dead after being poisoned at his own wedding, and succeeded by his younger and more pliable brother, Tommen. Queen Cersei Lannister succeeds her father as the head of House Lannister, and once again takes over as Queen Regent, as Tommen has yet to come of age. Cersei has been blocked by several powerful men over the years, including her husband King Robert Baratheon and his friend Eddard Stark, but due to her betrayals they are both dead. Now with even Tywin and Joffrey dead, and Tyrion fleeing the realm, there are no more checks on Cersei's power, and she is essentially the Ruling Queen of the Seven Kingdoms in all but name. However, Cersei is neither a master strategist nor a skilled diplomat (unlike her father and brother) and she faces mounting crises that would have strained even their abilities.

House Lannister and its allies have managed to crush House Stark, but in many ways it was a pyrrhic victory. The Iron Throne was already in massive debt to foreign banks before the war even began, and the Lannisters' immense wartime spending increased the crown's debts to crippling levels. The Lannisters must now desperately attempt to placate the Iron Bank of Braavos, by far the largest of the foreign banks, and the one which the crown owes most of its huge debts to. The game of thrones is, unfortunately, not a simple game of cyvasse in which the pieces can be quickly reassembled: vast swathes of Westeros have been devastated by civil war, and it may take a full generation for them to rebuild. The Riverlands, where most of the war was fought, have been reduced to a burned out husk. Nominally the Lannisters and their House Frey allies control the Riverlands, but it has been reduced to a lawless and corpse-filled devastation, hardly controlled by anyone. Winter is fast approaching, but instead of stockpiling harvests the past few years, the great lords have been busy destroying one of the main breadbasket regions of the Seven Kingdoms. Combined with the realm's massive debts to foreign banks, starvation level conditions are starting to set in for the smallfolk across the realm. Outraged by the willful indifference of their rulers to their well-being for so long, commoners are starting to fall back onto old cultural touchstones, channeling their frustration into religious fanaticism. A popular disgust movement spreads across Westeros, and makes its way to the capital. Adding to these woes is the increasing rivalry between the Lannisters and their Tyrell allies, specifically between Cersei and Margaery Tyrell. The Lannisters only managed to win on the battlefield with the armies and food resources won by their alliance with the House Tyrell of the Reach. Now that Tywin is dead, and Margaery is soon to be King Tommen's queen, the Tyrells are no longer pretending to be polite to the Lannisters, but openly demanding greater concessions and key positions of power. With half of the Lannister armies slaughtered by Robb Stark during the war, their financial resources depleted, and the Tyrells controlling the only major breadbasket region untouched by the war, the Lannisters are having to face the reality that the Tyrells hold numerous advantages over them. Just as Robert Baratheon became king only to become dependent on the support of the Lannisters, the Lannisters have now become dependant on the Tyrells. Without the political acumen of Tywin or Tyrion, Queen Regent Cersei struggles to address these major challenges. Adding even further to her woes is that the king's Small Council has been gutted, with Hand of the King Tywin dead, Master of Coin Petyr Baelish leaving for the Eyrie, and both Tyrion and Master of Whisperers Varys fleeing the capital city. Of the original Small Council when the Lannisters first seized power, only Grand Maester Pycelle remains.

Besides the Reach, only the regions which have remained neutral so far still have all of their armies and resources intact: the Vale, ruled by House Arryn, and Dorne, ruled by House Martell. With nearly all the other Great Houses defeated or half-exhausted, the fresh armies of the Vale and Dorne can drastically alter the political playing field, depending on which side they choose to join. The ultimate result of the war was to exhaust the Starks, Lannisters, and other Great Houses of the Seven Kingdoms - exactly as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish had planned. The secret architect of the conflict, it was Littlefinger who was responsible for poisoning Robert's Hand, Jon Arryn, by conspiring with his own wife Lysa Arryn. Littlefinger then engineered the betrayal of Eddard Stark, only to later assist Olenna Tyrell in assassinating King Joffrey at his own wedding. Baelish has now murdered Lysa, mere days after wedding her, and seized power over the Vale as regent for her young son. For the moment, Baelish remains in the Vale, consolidating his new hold over the Vale lords through his stepson Robin and his position as Lord Protector of the Vale. Alongside Baelish is the black-haired "Alayne", his ward and "niece" - secretly, Sansa Stark, who fell into Littlefinger's custody after he helped her escape her long imprisonment at Joffrey's royal court. In the deserts of the deep south of Westeros, the people of Dorne demand vengeance for the death of Prince Oberyn, who died in a trial by combat at the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane. Leading the call to enter the war against the Lannisters are Oberyn's paramour, Ellaria Sand, and the eldest of his eight daughters: Obara, Nymeria, and Tyene. But Doran Martell, the Prince of Dorne and Oberyn's older brother, may be of a different mind. Further complicating the matter is that early in the war, the Lannisters bribed the Martells into staying neutral by offering a marriage-alliance, sending Cersei's daughter Myrcella to Dorne to betroth her to Doran's son Trystane. Myrcella is still a ward living in Dorne's capital, Sunspear.

The most dire situation in Westeros, however, is in the North and at the Wall. The massive assault against Castle Black by the wildling army of Mance Rayder was defeated at the last moment by the surprise arrival of Stannis Baratheon and his remaining forces. Stannis withdrew from his island stronghold Dragonstone to reach the Wall by sea, to defend the realm of which he feels he is the only rightful king. With his home territories in the Stormlands overrun, Stannis needs to win the allegiance of Robb Stark's defeated bannermen, to rally the North again as a springboard against Lannister rule. The main armies of the Northern Houses, however, were slaughtered in the south at the Red Wedding, and the large main army of House Bolton has just returned to the North following the recapture of Moat Cailin. The Boltons switched to the Lannister side during the betrayal at the Red Wedding, during which their leader Lord Roose Bolton personally killed Robb Stark, and they have been installed as the new rulers of the North in the name of King Tommen and the Lannisters. With the other Northern Houses defeated and weakened, the Lannister-backed Bolton army can now suppress any feeble opposition to their rule. Meanwhile, Roose's psychotic bastard son Ramsay Snow - now legitimized as Ramsay Bolton - is the new Lord of Winterfell under his father, reoccupying the castle which he personally burned out previously. Ramsay's atrocities terrify the North, such as flaying men alive and hunting and killing young women for sport.

However, the struggle for the North is not yet over. Various areas of the North's western coast are still held by ironborn invaders under Balon Greyjoy, who chose to crown himself as King of the Iron Islands and attack the North during Robb Stark's march south rather than ally with him against the Lannisters. Balon's son and heir, Theon, who himself was a ward of Lord Eddard Stark and one of Robb's closest advisors, turned on the Starks and led the assault himself but was betrayed by his own men and is now a prisoner of the Boltons, having been brutally flayed, tortured, and psychologically broken by Ramsay himself, who has reduced Theon to his personal slave, "Reek". With almost all of the Watch's top officers killed, the organization has been left leaderless during this time of crisis - and therefore will have to navigate a contentious election for a new Lord Commander. All the while, the White Walkers and their ever-growing army of the dead are bearing down on the Wall itself, intent on spilling over it to destroy the lands of men beyond, ignorant of the long-forgotten but all-too-real danger.

East of Westeros, after murdering his own father, Tyrion Lannister has fled across the Narrow Sea to the Free Cities, his future intentions unknown even to himself. Accompanied by Varys, he arrives in the east, unaware that the erstwhile Master of Whisperers might yet have secrets to reveal. Further north, meanwhile, representatives from the Iron Throne travel to the Free City of Braavos to assuage the Iron Bank's frustrations about all of the money the Lannisters owe. Unbeknownst to all, a girl once known as Arya Stark has also fled to Braavos, due to a favor she was owed for saving the life of one of the mysterious guild of assassins in Braavos known as the Faceless Men. Further east in Slaver's Bay, Daenerys Targaryen's hold over Meereen has become very precarious, as ruling the city is becoming much more difficult than conquering it was. Sectarian violence is rampant between the former slaves and former slave-masters, revenge attacks are on the rise, and the resurgent slavers at Yunkai are rallying all those who oppose her. Daenerys's three dragons, now growing to dangerous size, have become uncontrollable and she can no longer rely upon them to defeat her enemies on the battlefield. Drogon burned a child to death while he was hunting and fled the city, forcing Daenerys to chain up the remaining two dragons in the caverns underneath the city. In addition, Daenerys is still distraught over the recent revelations concerning her once-trusted advisor Jorah Mormont, whom she exiled from the city as punishment. Her remaining advisors Ser Barristan Selmy, Missandei, and the sellsword Daario Naharis attempt to help hold her reign together. But unbeknownst to Daenerys, word has finally spread to Westeros that the last living Targaryen heir has hatched three live dragons. No longer a mere curiosity halfway across the world, several different factions in Westeros are now pondering how Daenerys and her dragons will factor into the already confusing and multi-sided civil war still tearing the Seven Kingdoms apart. Envoys are beginning to head east to court Daenerys's allegiance: but those who try to dance with dragons run the risk of being burned.

Production
Location scouting for Season 5 took place in Croatia and Spain. Filming in Croatia will continue in and around Dubrovnik, Split, and Žrnovnica, and will expand to new locations around Imotski and Šibenik. The Spanish locations which were scouted are in Andalusia, namely the Alhambra of Granada, the Alcázar of Seville and the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos of Córdoba.

On July 2, 2014, U.S. ambassador to Spain James Costos confirmed at an economic forum meeting that Game of Thrones will be filming in the country. HBO later confirmed the same day that Seville was selected as the primary filming location, as well as other sites in the surrounding province of Seville. Further reports strongly indicate that the Alcázar of Seville will serve as the Water Gardens, the seaside palace of House Martell located just outside of Sunspear, the capital of Dorne. Alcázar is the oldest palace still in use in Europe, acting as a part-time residence for the present Spanish royal family. The site was first fortified in 712, and the Almohads expanded it in the twelfth century, making it a royal residence in 1248. Extensive additions were also made in subsequent centuries. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. The Alcázar was previously used in Ridley Scott's 2005 film Kingdom of Heaven as the filming location for the court of the king of Jerusalem.

Locations have been scouted in Seville as well as the nearby town of Osuna. Fresco Film Productions put out an open casting call via Facebook for extras in the area. Rosario Andújar, the mayor of Osuna, stated in El Mundo that several filming locations which have been scouted include the Plaza de Toros (a bull ring with sandstone walls, over a century old), the university (built in 1548, with four towers and influenced by the Italian Renaissance, La Colegiata (a church founded in 1535), and the Canteras de Osuna (the old quarries that supplied stone for the town).

On July 3, 2014 it was reported that filming will briefly return to Iceland, but apparently will not feature any major characters, instead focusing on landscape shots. Line producer Snorri Þórisson confirmed that the show intended to film a battle in Iceland in the month of November, but that with rewrites, the scene grew too large (the scene may now be filmed somewhere else, filmed with a combination of greenscreen, or pushed to Season 6). It is difficult to film protracted battle scenes in Iceland during the fall due to the very limited daylight hours.

On July 13, 2014, it was confirmed that filming would begin in September in the town of Sibenik, Croatia. The location is most likely to represent parts of Braavos with St. James Cathedral rumored as the House of Black and White.

On July 27, 2014, in an interview with Sophie Turner, she confirmed that she would start filming in Belfast on Wednesday July 30.

On August 9, 2014, it was confirmed that the production team in Spain would be filming in one of Osuna's active bull-fighting rings, the Plaza de Toros, but that actual filming in the ring might not take place until October. Bull fights are held at the Plaza de Toros annually, events which end with bulls actually being killed in the arena.

On August 11, 2014, WatchersOnTheWall.com reported that 86 year old actor actor J.J. Murphy died a matter of days after filming his first scenes as Denys Mallister, the commander of the Shadow Tower, the westernmost active castle on the Wall. The same day, Benioff and Weiss made an official statement via HBO's twitter account that the role will not be recast: "We will not be recasting J.J. Murphy. He was a lovely man, and the best Denys Mallister we could have hoped for. And now his watch is ended." Apparently Season 5 will continue to use those scenes that Murphy already filmed, and possibly rewrite other scenes to work around his absence. This will make Denys the second posthumous character appearing in the TV series (as well as the second cast member who has died): actress Margaret John, who played Old Nan, died only two months before Season 1 premiered, though all of her scenes had already been completed.

On August 24, 2014, WatchersOnTheWall.com reported that filming would again return to Diocletian's Palace in Croatia. The cellars of the palace were previously used as the underground passageways in Meereen during Season 4.

On September 3, 2014, Kristian Nairn (Hodor) revealed that he will not be returning in Season 5: "We're not actually in Season Five, by the way. We have a season off. We have a year’s hiatus...Solely because, I imagine, our storyline is up to the end of the books. - So I get a year off now." There was concern that Bran Stark would not appear either, since his storyline had almost reached the end of its material from the fifth and most recent novel, A Dance with Dragons, but Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran, seemed to imply he would be back. However, it was later confirmed Bran would indeed not be in the fifth season. On October 6, 2014, Art Parkinson (Rickon) confirmed that he and Natalia Tena (Osha) would not be returning in Season 5.

On October 14, 2014, Game of Thrones production units were observed filming in Córdoba, Spain, at the Roman Bridge of Córdoba. Benioff and Weiss confirmed that Córdoba will represent at least some shots of the Free City of Volantis. The city is located at the mouth of the massive Rhoyne River, and is famous for its "Long Bridge" which crosses over it.

That same week, Benioff and Weiss spoke in a special event at the Teatro Central de Sevilla. They confirmed that there would be flashbacks in Season 5, despite their previous assertions that there would never be flashbacks on the TV show. They did experiment with using flashbacks in the unaired pilot episode, but afterwards felt that it broke up the dramatic pacing. The books themselves do not have straightforward "flashback scenes", but POV narrators will remember or recall past events at length (i.e. when Jaime explains why he actually killed the Mad King, in "Kissed by Fire"). A drawback of this has been that they cannot always easily fit long expository speeches recounting large blocks of backstory into episodes (without resorting to Sexposition), so several major backstory events have only been briefly mentioned in passing (such as Rhaegar Targaryen). By Season 5, however, they have reached a point where there was no way to easily explain certain backstory events other than with flashback scenes. This apparently confirms earlier casting reports which indicated that there will be flashback scenes featuring Young Cersei. What remains to be seen, however, is if these flashback scenes will be presented as objectively true, with an omniscient camera, or if they will be based on the subjective recollection of the characters, Rashomon-style.

Adaptation

 * See main article on "Game of Thrones (TV series)"

While developing Season 4, Benioff admitted that "Season 5 gives him nightmares". However, once they actually had outlined the season, Benioff and D.B. Weiss revealed "the fear started to dissipate." Season 5 will be "drawing heavily" from A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons, the fourth and fifth books of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga.

The book series was originally planned as a trilogy (A Game of Thrones, A Dance with Dragons and The Winds of Winter), but Martin realized his plot of "book one" would have to be expanded into three novels (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords), which means the first three books are "Act One" of a three Act story. In fact, the climax of A Storm of Swords concludes many of the plot lines begun in A Game of Thrones. Furthermore, what Martin originally planned as the middle novel grew too vast to be published as a single tome, so he cut it into two books that take place concurrently: in very rough terms, the fourth one (A Feast for Crows) follows all of the characters in the Seven Kingdoms while the fifth one (A Dance with Dragons) covers the storylines that take place elsewhere (such as the Night's Watch at the Wall, Tyrion as he escapes to the Free Cities, and Daenerys in Slaver's Bay). Season 5 will present the events featured in these two books in chronological order, intercutting between the two clusters of storylines.

On the one hand, the combination of the fourth and fifth novels could easily span two seasons, since this fusion would be longer than A Storm of Swords, which was adapted into the third and fourth seasons (although the latter dipped into the following two books as well.) On the other hand, whereas the Red Wedding happens around the middle of the third novel and provided a convenient climax for Season 3, there are no similarly game-changing or climactic events in the middle of A Feast for Crows or A Dance with Dragons.

Ultimately, judging by filming news and trailers featuring characters and events that belong to the climax of the fifth book, it seems that at least several storylines will reach the end of the fifth and most recent book. Other storylines, however, may not yet reach the end of the latest material, as the TV series has never rigidly followed the outline of the novels. Specifically, while Bran Stark's and Sansa Stark's storylines were already nearly out of published material by the end of Season 4, Jon Snow is still not finished with all of his storyline from the third novel, and the ironborn have been put on the back burner for the last two seasons, appearing for just a few minutes in each of them. Therefore, the rate at which each storyline exhausts its material will probably vary from one to the next, as it has in previous seasons.

Returning starring cast

 * Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister
 * Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister
 * Lena Headey as Queen Regent Cersei Lannister
 * Emilia Clarke as Queen Daenerys Targaryen
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish
 * Natalie Dormer as Lady Margaery Tyrell
 * Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth
 * Stephen Dillane as King Stannis Baratheon
 * Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre
 * Alfie Allen as Reek
 * Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Arya Stark
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane
 * Hannah Murray as Gilly
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Bolton
 * Conleth Hill as Varys
 * Jerome Flynn as Ser Bronn
 * Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont
 * Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei
 * Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis
 * Tom Wlaschiha as TBA

Returning guest starring cast

 * Charles Dance as Lord Tywin Lannister.
 * Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell
 * Ciaran Hinds as Mance Rayder
 * Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand
 * Eugene Simon as Ser Lancel Lannister
 * Ian Gelder as Ser Kevan Lannister
 * Michael McElhatton as Lord Roose Bolton
 * Ian McElhinney as Ser Barristan Selmy
 * Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lord Mace Tyrell
 * Anton Lesser as Qyburn
 * Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle
 * Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne
 * Dominic Carter as Janos Slynt
 * Mark Gatiss as Tycho Nestoris
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Dean-Charles Chapman as King Tommen Baratheon
 * Ian Beattie as Ser Meryn Trant
 * Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm
 * Joel Fry as Hizdahr zo Loraq
 * Finn Jones as Ser Loras Tyrell
 * Tara Fitzgerald as Queen Selyse Baratheon
 * Kerry Ingram as Princess Shireen Baratheon
 * Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett
 * Edward Dogliani as the Lord of Bones
 * Paul Bentley as the High Septon
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane
 * Lino Facioli as Lord Robin Arryn
 * Rupert Vansittart as Yohn Royce
 * Gary Oliver as Ternesio Terys
 * Elisabeth Webster as Lady Walda Bolton
 * Brian Fortune as Othell Yarwyck
 * Charlotte Hope as Myranda
 * Will Tudor as Olyvar
 * Brenock O'Connor as Olly
 * Sarine Sofair as Lhara
 * Reece Noi as Keyr

New major cast

 * Alexander Siddig as Prince Doran Martell. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Toby Sebastian as Prince Trystane Martell. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Nell Tiger Free as Princess Myrcella Baratheon. Announced July 25, 2014
 * DeObia Oparei as Areo Hotah. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Enzo Cilenti as Yezzan zo Qaggaz. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Jessica Henwick as Nymeria Sand. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as Tyene Sand. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Keisha Castle-Hughes as Obara Sand. Announced July 25, 2014
 * Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow. Announced July 25, 2014
 * J.J. Murphy as Ser Denys Mallister. Announced August 11, 2014
 * Michael Condron as Bowen Marsh. Announced August 22, 2014
 * Hannah Waddingham as Septa Unella. Announced October 9, 2014
 * Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Malko. Announced October 17, 2014
 * Nell Williams as Young Cersei. Announced January 5, 2015.
 * Isabella Steinbarth as Melara Hetherspoon. Announced January 7, 2015.
 * Jodhi May as Maggy the Frog. Announced January 21, 2015.
 * Birgitte Hjort Sørensen as TBA. Announced March 15, 2015.

New minor and unknown cast

 * Gary Pillai as a merchant captain. Announced August 6, 2014
 * Matt McArdle as TBA. Announced September 5, 2014
 * Derek Lord as a Mallister supporter. Announced September 17, 2014
 * Alan McKee as TBA. Announced September 17, 2014
 * Tom Fava as a street tough. Announced September 17, 2014
 * Gianpiero Cognoli as Master Eaton. Announced September 17, 2014
 * Emma Maguire as a Winterfell worker. Announced September 17, 2014
 * Mishael Lopes Cardozo as a brothel guard. Announced September 17, 2014
 * Meena Rayann as a Meereenese noblewoman. Announced September 20, 2014
 * Slavko Sobin as a Meereenese fighter. Announced September 21, 2014
 * Oengus MacNamara as TBA. Announced October 2, 2014.
 * Gwyneth Keyworth as Clea. Announced October 17, 2014
 * Paddy Wallace as a Kingsguard. Announced October 19, 2014
 * Peter Silverleaf as Elboneno. Announced October 19, 2014
 * Stella McCusker as an old woman. Announced October 19, 2014
 * Allon Sylvain as a foreign merchant. Announced October 19, 2014
 * Bobby Asghar as Catacomb Master . Announced October 20, 2014
 * Annika Hillbrink as a sword fighting wight. Announced October 27, 2014
 * Nick Boulton as the fighting pit announcer. Announced November 3, 2014
 * Zoe Smedberg as a wildling female. Announced November 8, 2014
 * Lacy Moore as a Braavosi Madam. Announced November 10, 2014
 * Nigel O'Neill as a Baratheon General. Announced November 10, 2014
 * Maggie Hayes as TBA. Announced November 10, 2014
 * James McKenzie Robinson as Joss. Announced November 15, 2014
 * Winston Davis as street tough. Announced November 18, 2014
 * Aifric O'Donnell as TBA. Announced November 18, 2014.
 * Tristan McConnell as Gordy. Announced November 22, 2014
 * Barrie Martin as a wildling / wight. Announced November 23, 2014
 * Jamie Darlington as TBA. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Gemita Samarra as Brea. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Irma Mali as TBA. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Ollie Kram as a Braavosi prostitute. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Tim Loane as TBA. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Christian Vit as the Lead Dornish Guard. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Jake Abraham as a Meereenese peddler. Announced December 9, 2014.
 * Simon Millar as a wildling. Announced December 16, 2014.
 * Murray McArthur as a wildling elder. Announced December 18, 2014.
 * Hattie Gotobed as Ghita. Announced January 5, 2015.
 * Garry Mountaine as Brusco Bouncer. Announced January 6, 2015.
 * Jack Hickey as a young Bravo. Announced January 6, 2015.
 * Roman Beguns as a gladiator. Announced January 7, 2015.
 * Fisun Burgess as a Meereenese peddler's wife. Announced January 7, 2015.
 * David Garlick as a despondent man. Announced January 7, 2015.
 * Zahary Baharov as Loboda. Announced February 2, 2015.
 * Ian Lloyd Anderson as Derek. Announced February 4, 2015.
 * Jonathan Byrne as Brant. Announced February 4, 2015.
 * Fausto Labraña as a Dothraki pit fighter. Announced February 6, 2015.
 * Portia Victoria as a brothel Smith goddess. Announced March 9, 2015.
 * Jonathan Gunning as a thug. Announced March 19, 2015.

Characters reportedly being cast

 * Lollys Stokeworth
 * The Waif
 * Varamyr Sixskins
 * A "Son"
 * A Dornish horse rider
 * White Rat
 * A Meereenese prostitute
 * A bearded blacksmith
 * A man with shrewd financial cunning and a long thin face
 * A Volantene sellsword
 * A fat, privileged master
 * Luther
 * Simpson

Crew
Regular directors Neil Marshall, Alex Graves, Alik Sakharov, and Michelle MacLaren are not returning for Season 5. Notably, this is also the first time since Season 2 that no episodes are directed by the executive producers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. MacLaren's departure also makes Season 5 the first since Season 2 with no female director. MacLaren is the only female director who ever worked on the TV series, producing two episodes in Season 3 and another two in Season 4.

George R.R. Martin stated he would not be writing an episode, as he has done in every previous season, because he wants to focus on finishing The Winds of Winter, the sixth novel in the book series. Meanwhile, Dave Hill, the former assistant for Benioff and Weiss and the writer of the Histories & Lore short videos, was brought forward to write an episode after Benioff and Weiss were impressed with his story ideas involving Olly and Ygritte in the fourth season.

Producers

 * David Benioff: executive producer
 * D.B. Weiss: executive producer
 * Bernadette Caulfield: executive producer

Writers

 * David Benioff & D.B. Weiss: episodes 1, 2, 3 and 4 other episodes
 * Bryan Cogman: 2 episodes
 * Dave Hill: 1 episode

Directors

 * Michael Slovis: episodes 1 and 2
 * Mark Mylod: episodes 3 and 4
 * Jeremy Podeswa: episodes 5 and 6
 * Miguel Sapochnik: episodes 7 and 8
 * David Nutter: episodes 9 and 10