Game Of Thrones
Episode 5.1 “The Wars to Come”
Directed by Michael Slovis
Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss
Starring Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Diana Rigg, Natalie Dormer, Maisie Williams, Sophie Turner
HBO
Air date: Sunday, April 13, 2015, 9pm

Game Of Thrones, one of the most highly anticipated television shows of the year, made its return on Sunday night. But Episode 5.1 “The Wars to Come” felt more like a “where are they now” installment that could have been summed up with a 5-minute preview video instead of an hour-long episode that moves the story forward.

For this Season 5 debut we catch up with most of the cast of Season 4 — those who made it through the Season 4 finale, that is. In that finale, we saw Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) finally use her magic coin and utter the words “Valar morghulis” (All men must die) to gain passage to the free city of Braavos, where we know she will start her new life. Unfortunately, this first episode doesn’t feature her at all — we’ll have to wait for 5.2 to pick up on her story.

Game of Thrones The Complete Fourth Season
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital | DVD l Limited Edition
CREATORS: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, George R.R. Martin (author)
STARRING: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Natalie Dormer, Stephen Dillane, Conleth Hill, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Iain Glen, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Jack Gleeson, Sophie Turner, Diana Rigg, Alfie Allen, Liam Cunningham, Rory McCann, Gwendoline Christie, Carice van Houten, Charles Dance, Kristian Nairn, John Bradley, Jerome Flynn, Sibel Kekilli, Finn Jones, Rose Leslie, Pedro Pascal, Daniel Portman, Ian McElhinney, Ciarán Hinds, Liam Cunningham, Hannah Murray, Kristofer Hivju, Ellie Kendrick, Thomas Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Iwan Rheon, Jacob Anderson, Indira Varma, Michael McElhatton, Hafthor Bjornsson, Roger Ashton-Griffiths
HBO
RELEASE DATE: February 17, 2015

Another year has come and gone, and a new season of Game of Thrones is on the horizon—season five, to be specific, which will premiere on April 12th.

As always, HBO has released the previous season, season four, on Blu-ray and DVD just in time to help get us through these undeniably difficult final couple of months of waiting for the new season to arrive. Once again we offer our review without any spoilers—in case you’ve not yet started or finished the latest season—and focus mainly on what fans of the show who are caught up want to know, which is what special features are included on the discs. If you’ve never seen the show at all, why on earth are you reading a review of season four instead of watching season one, episode one? Go now!

While we were in San Diego covering Comic-Con, our hearty team of weather-worn GoDs cranked out more than 60 articles. We were given a personal tour of Crimson Peak by director Guillermo del Toro. We piloted a virtual Jaeger from Pacific Rim. We covered four straight days of film and television panels in Hall H. We published tons of really great comic book news, casting announcements, all manner of awesome reveals, and so much more!

I took so many photos during the Hall H panels I attended at SDCC, that I’ve been updating our panel coverage articles with galleries since Sunday afternoon. And I’ve only now just finished processing my final lot of panel photos.

Below are nearly 400 additional panel photos that were taken over the course of my four days in Hall H, including Kingsman: The Secret Service with Colin Firth; the EW Women Who Kick Ass panel; The Maze Runner, the newest film in the Hitman franchise Agent 47; Michael Mann’s Blackhat with Chris Helmsworth; Let’s Be Cops; the newest stop-motion masterpiece from Laika, The Box Trolls; Paris-sewer found-footage horror, As Above So Below; Salma Hayek’s ‘The Raid,’ Everly; and an animated film that was completely off my radar pre-SDCC, but which I am now extremely looking forward to, The Book of Life.

The cast of HBO’s hit series Game Of Thrones along with creator George R.R. Martin and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss made an appearance today in Hall H today at San Diego Comic-Con. The actors on the panel were Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Baratheon), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane “The Hound”), Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark).

All the cast members received a loud round of applause, though Pedro Pascal, who plays Oberyn Martell The Red Viper, got the loudest response it seemed. Moderator Craig Ferguson jokingly asked the panel which of them was still alive on the show, considering that some of the actors’ characters were killed off (a specialty of Martin’s).

A blooper reel was shown, but the big reveal for the panel was a video introducing the new cast members for season five and something about their characters (mostly, their weaponry). Filming will take part for some scenes in Spain, Ireland, and Croatia, and will introduce more of the Dornish characters. The standout actors revealed for next season include Alexander Diddig (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) as Doran Martell, Jonathan Pryce as High Sparrow, and Keisha Castle-Hughes (from Whale Rider) as Obara Sand, the bastard daughter of Oberyn Martell.

Watch the new cast member video here below.

Game of Thrones The Complete Third Season
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital | DVD l Limited Edition
CREATORS: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, George R.R. Martin (author)
STARRING: Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Richard Madden, Emilia Clarke, Michelle Fairley, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Natalie Dormer, Stephen Dillane, Conleth Hill, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Iain Glen, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Jack Gleeson, Sophie Turner, Diana Rigg, Alfie Allen, David Bradley, Liam Cunningham, James Cosmo, Rory McCann, Gwendoline Christie, Carice van Houten, Joe Dempsie, Charles Dance, Kristian Nairn, John Bradley, Michael McElhatton, Sibel Kekilli, Finn Jones, Oona Chaplin, Rose Leslie, Iwan Rheon, Ian McElhinney, Ciarán Hinds, Paul Kaye, Hannah Murray, Kristofer Hivju, Ellie Kendrick, Thomas Sangster, Nathalie Emmanuel, Tobias Menzies, Natalia Tena, Richard Dormer, Mackenzie Crook, Clive Russell, Art Parkinson
HBO
RELEASE DATE: February 18, 2014

It’s cold and dark and depressing outside as many of us fight through the dead of winter, but excitement is starting to build in the land of television as Game of Thrones begins to take over once again. It started with the first trailers and behind-the-scenes special for season four. It continues with the release of season three on Blu-ray today. And officially hits its full stride on April 6th with the start of the new season, as the show looks to continue its dominance over others as the best on TV today. The warmth of the sun is not far off now. For us anyway; we know what’s coming for Westeros.

With one of the most shocking sequences of events in TV history setting the internet ablaze with reactions, memes aplenty, and much discussion, season three continued to set the bar extremely high and continued bringing new fans to the series with no signs of slowing down in sight.