Season 4

Season 4 of Game of Thrones was formally commissioned by HBO on 2 April 2013, following a substantial increase in audience figures between the second and third seasons. However, substantial pre-production work on the season had already taken place previously to this point, including the writing of at least six of the scripts (by March 2013), and the booking of some of the filming dates. The season will again consist of ten episodes and will commence production on 8 July 2013, running late into the year. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are to return as showrunners, having signed a new two-year contract with HBO prior to the commissioning of the third season.

The season will premiere in the first half of 2014.

Season 4 will be mostly based on the latter part of A Storm of Swords, the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin, but also some material may be added from the fourth and fifth books (which run concurrently alongside the end of the third book and each other).

Plot
The War of the Five Kings is drawing to a close, but the fight is just beginning. New intrigues and plots are in motion, and the surviving factions must contend with enemies not only outside their ranks, but within.

King in the North Robb Stark is dead, betrayed by his own bannermen the Boltons and Freys while he was a guest under their roof, his corpse desecrated by sewing his direwolf's head in place of his own. Robb's mother Catelyn and most of the Northern leadership were killed at the massacre now known as the Red Wedding, along with the entire Northern army.

Having already defeated the Baratheon threat at the Battle of the Blackwater and secured southern Westeros, House Lannister now stand triumphant. The crazed boy-king Joffrey Baratheon gloats over his crushed enemies, though the victory truly belongs to his grandfather Lord Tywin Lannister, Hand of the King and the real power behind the Iron Throne. As reward for their betrayal, Tywin has granted the Boltons rule of the North, and the Freys with functional rule of the Riverlands, where they both attempt to assert Lannister control. The handful of Robb's remaining bannermen who refused to surrender have retreated back to Riverrun, the former capital of the Riverlands, under the command of his great-uncle Brynden "the Blackfish" Tully, but they are surrounded and their defeat is inevitable.

With the mainland of Westeros secure, the Lannisters are finally in a position to start grinding down the remaining threats to their rule from the periphery of the realm: the Greyjoys and the Baratheons. During the opening moves of the war, Robb Stark offered an alliance to Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands so that both of their kingdoms could declare independence from Lannister control. Instead, Balon spurned Robb's offer and opportunistically attacked the western coasts of the North while its armies were away in the south with Robb - but declared himself King of the Iron Islands anyway, hoping that the Lannisters would be so grateful that the ironborn stabbed the Starks in the back that Lord Tywin would overlook Balon's declaration of independence, if not outright confirm it as a reward. Balon, however, forgot that Tywin Lannister is not a man who takes treason against the Iron Throne lightly. The Greyjoys were content to sit back and gloat from their salty rocks while the Lannisters slaughtered Starks and Baratheons on the mainland, but now the chickens are now coming home to roost. Ironborn occupiers remaining in the North are being flayed alive by the Lannister-backed Boltons, the Lannisters and their allies are building new fleets to take the fight to them on the seas...and an old threat from within their own ranks returns to throw the Greyjoys into turmoil.

Stannis Baratheon, as the rightful heir to his older brother King Robert, remains a thorn in the side of the usurper Joffrey - who is truly a bastard born of incest between Queen Cersei and her own twin brother Jaime Lannister. Stannis was left a king without an army after his defeat at the Battle of the Blackwater, and has languished for the past year at his stronghold on Dragonstone island. With the Young Wolf dead, the Lannisters can begin to turn their attention back to Stannis. Yet Stannis still has a powerful piece left in the game, in the form of the powerful magic-wielding Red Priestess Melisandre - her spells may strike where least expected.

While the Lannisters have crushed their external enemies, the enemies within their ranks are growing in strength, and are on the verge of a major power play. The Lannisters only managed to win on the battlefield with the key support of House Tyrell of the Reach, which they won through promising a marriage-alliance between King Joffrey and Margaery Tyrell, daughter of Lord Mace Tyrell. Queen Regent Cersei fears - correctly - that just as the Baratheons became dependent on the Lannisters in order to overthrow the old Targaryen dynasty, the Lannisters are starting to become dependent on the Tyrells, who are already insinuating themselves into positions of power at King's Landing. A royal wedding is to be held between Joffrey and Margaery, which will confirm the future of the realm.

The only two kingdoms which have remained entirely aloof from the war so far are the Vale of Arryn and Dorne, both of which were lured into neutrality by the Lannisters in exchange for promised marriage-alliances. Even the Lannisters and Tyrells have taken some losses in the war, but the Valemen and Dornish have fresh armies which have not yet been bloodied in the conflict. Now that the Starks and Baratheons are crushed and the Lannisters half-exhausted, these new pieces can drastically alter the game board.

Former Master of Coin Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish has been rewarded for his services by wedding Catelyn Stark's younger sister, the mentally unbalanced Lysa Arryn. Baelish readies to depart for the Eyrie, where his new marriage will make him acting Lord Paramount of the Vale, and one of the most powerful men in the realm: only the Gods know what game Littelfinger is really playing.

House Martell of Dorne has loathed the Lannisters ever since Robert's Rebellion, when Ser Gregor Clegane raped and killed Elia Martell (sister of the current ruling Prince of Dorne) during the Sack of King's Landing, and Lord Tywin did nothing to punish him. The Lannisters managed to secure the neutrality of Dorne in the current war by offering an exchange: Cersei's only daughter Princess Myrcella sent off to Dorne as part of her betrothal to Trystane Martell, and in return, the Martells were promised a seat on the Small Council. To the consternation of the Lannisters, a large Dornish embassy arrives in King's Landing to claim their due - but instead of the elderly Prince Doran Martell, his brash younger brother Oberyn Martell has come to claim the council seat. Oberyn loves the ladies, he loves the boys, but most of all he loved his sister Elia, and he has come to King's Landing to demand a brother's vengeance.

Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea in Slaver's Bay, perhaps the greatest threat to Lannister rule is rapidly growing in strength. Daenerys Targaryen, last scion of the royal House Targaryen, was once a frightened young exile living at the edge of the world - now, she commands three live dragons and an army of eight thousand Unsullied warrior-eunuchs, and has left a trail of burning and sacked cities in her wake. After freeing the elite Unsullied warrior-eunuchs, Daenerys finally has the army she lacked her entire life, and is now a major player on the world's political stage. With the growing and increasingly dangerous three dragons she hatched, Queen Daenerys is carving a path through Slaver's Bay - not of conquest but of liberation. As functionally once a slave herself, Daenerys is determined to free the downtrodden slaves of the region. First Astapor and then Yunkai fell before Daenerys' forces, and hundreds of thousands of freed slaves now flock to her banner. Yet Daenerys must now face the last and greatest of the slaver-cities, Meereen, bigger than Astapor and Yunkai put together - and unlike her previous victories, they have had time to prepare for her arrival. Meanwhile, though Daenerys is convinced she can make the world a better place through sheer force of will, she has not considered the practical fallout of her decisions: now that she has freed hundreds of thousands of slaves, she must struggle with how to feed and care for so many uprooted people. And within her own ranks, Daenerys faces a betrayal of the heart.

Still, as the direwolf banner of House Stark has been trampled into the dust the dragon banner of House Targaryen is on the rise, and an entirely new stage of the War of the Five Kings is about to begin. The Targaryen Restoration may begin sooner than even Daenerys realizes, as the chaos left by the Stark-Lannister war has left the Seven Kingdoms ripe for new alliances to be forged. The Martells have been strong Targaryen loyalists since Robert's Rebellion, and would openly side with Daenerys the moment she sets foot in Westeros. While feigning to support Lannister rule for the time being, Oberyn Martell and Varys are perfecting plans to prepare Dorne to be Daenerys' first foothold in the realm when she comes to claim the throne that is rightfully hers.

Yet far to the north, far beyond the petty politics and meaningless feuds of the south, the Wall and the dwindling Night's Watch are all that stand between the Seven Kingdoms and the horrors beyond. The White Walkers have returned, leading their armies of undead Wights, bringing with them a darkness that will cover and consume the lands of the living. The remaining wildlings have rallied behind King-Beyond-the-Wall Mance Rayder in an attempt to flee south, knowing that as the White Walkers spread south, any who remain in the lands beyond the Wall will die. Mance's wildling army now numbers in the tens of thousands, and is determined to force its way through the Wall to reach the safety of the south. All that stands between the Seven Kingdoms and this barbarian invasion is the Night's Watch, whose numbers and leadership were recently devastated in a disastrous expedition north of the Wall, which ended with the White Walkers killing a third of their number and the death of Lord Commander Jeor Mormont. Only Jon Snow, Samwell Tarly, and a handful of others returned from the expedition to the safety of Castle Black.

Not only are the Night's Watch outnumbered and their remaining leadership fractured, but advanced raiding bands of wildlings have infiltrated behind the Wall by climbing over it, preparing to attack the weakly defended southern side of Castle Black. These warbands are led by Tormund Giantsbane and the fearsome Styr, Magnar of Thenn - as well as Jon Snow's ex-lover Ygritte, whom he betrayed when he revealed his true loyalty and returned to the Night's Watch. A massive wildling assault on looms on the horizon, as thousands of barbarian warriors prepare to assault Castle Black.

On top of all of this, the divided surviving leadership of the Night's Watch is hampered by new Lannister-loyal recruits sent up from the south - men who would like nothing better than to kill the bastard son of Ned Stark, to extinguish the last known bloodline of House Stark.

Production
It has been confirmed that the production will return to Dubrovnik in Croatia and Iceland, while it is assumed that filming will also continue in Northern Ireland. It has also been announced that the coastal city of Split, also in Croatia, has been added.

Whether filming will also resume in Morocco is not yet known.

Returning
All regular cast members whose characters survive the events of Season 3 are expected to return for the fourth season.

Main Cast
Confirmed main cast members:
 * Kit Harington as Jon Snow
 * Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister
 * Natalie Dormer as Lady Margaery Tyrell
 * Sophie Turner as Princess Sansa Stark
 * Maisie Williams as Princess Arya Stark
 * Alfie Allen as Prince Theon Greyjoy
 * Carice van Houten as Lady Melisandre
 * Sibel Kekilli as Shae
 * John Bradley as Samwell Tarly
 * Rose Leslie as Ygritte
 * Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane, "the Hound"
 * Aidan Gillen as Lord Petyr Baelish, "Littlefinger"
 * Conleth Hill as Lord Varys, "the Spider"

Recurring Cast
Confirmed recurring cast members:
 * Andy Beckwith as Rorge
 * Dominic Carter as Lord Janos Slynt
 * Kate Dickie as Lady Lysa Arryn, Lady Regent of the Vale
 * Kerry Ingram as Princess Shireen Baratheon
 * Art Parkinson as Prince Rickon Stark
 * Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne
 * Owen Teale as Ser Alliser Thorne
 * Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Snow
 * Kristian Nairn as Hodor
 * Josef Altin as Pyp
 * Tony Way as Ser Dontos Hollard
 * Charlotte Hope as Myranda
 * Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth
 * Luke Barnes as Rast
 * Finn Jones as Ser Loras Tyrell, "the Knight of the Flowers"
 * Diana Rigg as Lady Olenna Tyrell, "the Queen of Thorns"
 * Noah Taylor as Locke
 * Burn Gorman as Karl

New Characters

 * Pedro Pascal as Prince Oberyn Martell, known as "the Red Viper of Dorne." Announced June 28 2013.
 * Octavia Alexandru as TBA. Announced July 2 2013
 * Mark Gatiss as Tycho Nestoris. Announced July 17 2013
 * Brenock O'Connor as TBA. Announced July 23 2013
 * Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand. Announced July 25 2013.
 * Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Lord Mace Tyrell, Lord of Highgarden, Warden of the South, Lord Paramount of the Reach. Announced July 29 2013
 * Joseph Gatt as TBA, Announced August 1 2013
 * Trixiebelle Harrowell as Farmer's daughter
 * Elizabeth Webster as Fat Walda Frey
 * Lu Corfield as Mole's Town madam
 * Rupert Vansittart as Lord Yohn Royce, known as "Bronze Yohn." Announced September 9 2013.

Recast Characters

 * Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis. Announced August 28 2013
 * Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson as Ser Gregor Clegane, "The Mountain that Rides". Announced August 30 2013

Casting for season 4 is underway, as confirmed by George R. R. Martin. Roles announced as being cast include:


 * Styr, the Magnar of Thenn

Producers

 * David Benioff: executive producer.
 * D.B. Weiss: executive producer. Benioff and Weiss signed a two-year contract in 2012, indicating that they will stay with the show to at least the end of the fourth season.

Writers

 * David Benioff & D.B. Weiss: episode 1
 * George R.R. Martin: episode 2
 * Bryan Cogman: two episodes.

Directors

 * David Benioff & D.B. Weiss - Episode 1
 * Alex Graves - Episodes 2, 3, 8, and 10
 * Michelle MacLaren - Episodes 4 and 5
 * Alik Sakharov - Episodes 6 and 7
 * Neil Marshall: Episode 9, formerly reported as 10.