Alan Taylor already had plenty of TV experience under his belt with “The Sopranos,” “Sex And The City,” and “Homicide: Life on the Street” (among others) before he stepped into the world of Westeros with “Game Of Thrones,” but it was his work on that series that truly brought him to the attention of Hollywood. HBO liked his work so much on the first season of ‘Thrones’ that they gave him four episodes of season two, including the premiere and finale, and it wasn’t long until blockbuster projects were on his desk. But his leap to the studio system didn’t quite work out so well.
Taylor jumped into the Marvel machine helming “Thor: The Dark World,” but last year admitted that the experience was “particularly wrenching,” suggesting there were a lot of meddling hands during post-production. Then there was last year’s “Terminator Genisys,” a reboot/retcon that failed to connect with anybody except audiences in China, and stopped plans to revive the franchise dead in its tracks. So Taylor is returning to the series that broke him out.
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HBO has unveiled the directors for “Game Of Thrones” season 7, with Taylor coming back along for the first time since season two, along with Jeremy Podeswa, Mark Mylod and Matt Shakman. Podeswa and Mylod are series veterans, while Shakman is a newcomer to the world created by George R. R. Martin, whose most extensive television work is on FX‘s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” He might seem an odd choice, until you find out that ‘Thrones’ showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are huge fans of the comedy, and even wrote an episode.
As for what we’ll see in season 7, Weiss had this to say to EW. “Once [Daenerys] gets on those ships and crosses West, that’s when the clock on the end game starts ticking,” he teased. “The question has been: When is she going to get back across the Narrow Sea? When is she going to take back her homeland? It’s been a long time for her, and it’s been something that’s such an imperative for people watching. You know she’s not going to go there for a beach vacation.”
Share your speculations below and see you next spring for what could be the penultimate season of “Game Of Thrones.”