“Harry Potter” alum Jim Broadbent has spilled a few of the beans as to which character he’ll play when “Game of Thrones” returns later this year.
In an interview with ScreenCrush, Broadbent described who he’s bringing to life to the show. And it makes a kind of sense, given his turn in two “Harry Potter” movies as Professor Horace Slughorn. Broadbent didn’t name his character outright, joking in the interview that he couldn’t reveal much in the way of details. But then he dropped some useful information, saying, “I’m a maester, an archmaester. I’m an old professor character.”
Makes sense, since Season 7 finds Samwell Tarley (John Bradley-West) venturing out to Oldtown, the home of the headquarters of the maester order. Maesters, for those who can’t quite remember, are Westeros’ mixture of doctors, scientists and teachers.
They often serve in castles under lords, handling all their science-minded junk and administering medicines. Sam is hoping to replace Maester Aemon (Peter Vaughan) back at the Wall, and to dig through the enormous library at the Citadel for information that might help defeat the White Walkers.
Broadbent is known for roles in “Moulin Rouge,” “Hot Fuzz,” “Gangs of New York” and “The Chronicles of Narnia,” among a whole lot of others — and several of the roles have a scholarly angle. He says he appears in five episodes of “Game of Thrones” Season 7, with at least one pretty big scene. ScreenCrush put the existing facts together to guess that he’ll play the role of Maester Marwyn from the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series.
Marwyn, it’s worth knowing, is hoping to track down Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) after hearing she’s got dragons. But since we’re still waiting for author George R. R. Martin’s next book in the series, “The Winds of Winter,” we don’t yet know what Marwyn’s motivations might be.
Though ScreenCrush speculates that Broadbent’s theoretical Marwyn will be searching for Daenerys, it also suggests he won’t find her in Season 7. Broadbent said all his scenes were shot on set — so probably he’ll mostly be hanging out with Sam in Oldtown, at least for now.