Game Of Thrones Season 4 Cast Recasts Gregor Clegane With Hafthor Bjornsson As Kit Harington Explains Shirtless 'Pompeii' Photo
"Game of Thrones" season 4 continues its trend of recasting old cast members, this time with Gregor Clegane going from Ian Whyte to newcomer Hafthor Julius Bjornsson.
The actor announced the "Game of Thrones" season 4 cast induction on his Twitter page earlier.
For all my fans! I am happy to tell you that I will be THE MOUNTAIN In season 4 In Game Of Thrones :)
— Hafþór J Björnsson (@ThorBjornsson_) September 3, 2013
Interestingly enough, the role of Gregor Clegane has been played by two different actors prior to Bjornsson anyway. Ian Whyte usurped the role from Conan Stevens as the Mountain in Season 2.
According to TV Guide, the recasting is in part due to Clegane having a bigger role in "Game of Thrones" season 4.
Bjornsson will be joined by fellow cast members Michiel Huisman (replacing Ed Skrein as Daario Naharis), and Dean-Charles Chapman (replacing Callum Wharry as Tommen Baratheon) in the growing trend of recasting for "Game of Thrones" season 4.
Meanwhile, veteran "Game of Thrones" cast member Kit Harington will be starring in the historical epic "Pompeii."
The actor took the time to explain the first promo photo of Harington in the movie, where we get to see the actor's shirtless abs in all their glory.
"This is the first scene you see me in. It's set in London, in fact, and it's a scene where my character is a gladiator fighting in an arena. That's his gladiator look," says Harington regarding the photo. "It's a great little fight against three masked gladiators and sets up who he is and where he's going. You see me display my skills quite early on."
"The first thing I said to [Paul] was, 'Look, I'm playing a gladiator. I feel there should be a physical transformation, if he's as strong as you say in the script. Maybe I should sort of tone up for that?' So I went into quite a heavy training regime five weeks before filming. I started by bulking up and then when I got out there I had four weeks to shred down and get toned. It's a full-time job that you have to carry on for the whole of the movie. I was on a very severe diet and training six days a week."