‘Game of Thrones’ Is Assembling the Golden Company
Marc Rissmann of ‘The Last Kingdom’ reportedly has been tapped to play the sellswords’ leader, Harry Strickland
Despite the fact that Game of Thrones has one shortened season left and is shedding plotlines as quickly as Jon Snow travels across Westeros, the series still has important roles to fill. That includes finding a leader for the Golden Company, the sellswords Cersei Lannister hired at the end of Season 7 to bolster her forces against Dany, the White Walkers, and whomever else survives the fighting up north. According to the Thrones fan site Watchers on the Wall, the show is tapping Marc Rissmann for the role, an actor best known for his recurring part on BBC’s The Last Kingdom.
More specifically, Rissmann, who already has the Game of Thrones look on lock, will play Harry Strickland. Strickland is straight out of the books, introduced in George R.R. Martin’s last novel, A Dance With Dragons (he’s described in the books as portly, though, as you can see, Rissmann is anything but). He’ll reportedly feature in two of the remaining six episodes, presumably whenever Cersei’s new army is called into battle.
The Golden Company has been left offscreen for a long, long time, so fans should be hyped to see what it brings to the fore. (However, this casting does mean that Daario Naharis is not the Golden Company leader, and will not find himself fighting against Daenerys, as many theorized.) As Cersei described in the Season 7 finale, they have “20,000 men, horses, elephants, I believe.” Even on a show that’s already shown us fire-breathing dragons and ice zombies, war elephants are damn exciting—even if The Lord of the Rings already did it.
As for Rissmann, hopefully he’s fine having his dialogue fed to him through an earpiece.
Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer.
