Maisie Williams, Michelle Fairley, and Isaac Hempstead-Wright preview what’s next for their characters.

Even though Maisie Williams hasn’t shared a scene with her “Game of Thrones” mother, Michelle Fairley, in more than two years, her lingering respect for Fairley has her popping up to fetch bottled water for Mama Stark just seconds after entering the hotel room in Beverly Hills, Calif., where the junket for Season 3 is being held. And just like in a real family, she checks in on her TV sibling Isaac Hempstead-Wright’s hydration needs as an afterthought.

“I have them well trained. It’s a real shame that we don’t get to work together anymore,” Fairley cracks before giving credit where it is really due. “No, their own families have raised them right. They are gorgeous, beautiful individuals. [I have] so much love for them. When we see each other in Belfast when our schedules cross, we just have a lot of fun together.”

They are well aware that behind-the-scenes socializing and media-day matchups will have to tide them over because for at least the foreseeable future, their character tangents will not realign.

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HBO’s epic masterpiece Game of Thrones is back for Season 3, with bigger battles, devastating betrayals and more deaths, as everyone fights for control of the Iron Throne.  Now that magic is growing stronger and the dragons have been let loose, there’s no telling who might be in jeopardy or in power next.

At the show’s press day, co-stars Michelle Fairley (“Catelyn Stark”), Maisie Williams (“Arya Stark”) and Isaac Hempstead Wright (“Bran Stark”) talked about bonding during the first season, how hard it is for Catelyn to be separated from her family, how the Reeds will add to the dynamic of the group, how much they know of their characters from the books, what it’s like to see the fans react to all of the show’s surprises, how different it is to do the show now, experiencing the fandom in America, who they’d like to have scenes with, and whether or not they’ve ever tried sitting on the Iron Throne.  Check out what they had to say after the jump, and be aware that there are some spoilers.

Question:  Was there a lot of bonding between you guys, in that very first season?

MICHELLE FAIRLEY:  Yeah, a lot.  We had such fun.  Even though we don’t work together, our schedules overlap, so we do see each other in Belfast.  We’ll see each other in the hotel, or maybe they’ll be shooting in one studio and we’re in another one, so we do see each other.  Unfortunately, we just don’t work together.  A lot of the stuff is in studio in the north of Ireland, and also on location around the north, as well.  Then, they go to Iceland, Croatia and Morocco.

MAISIE WILLIAMS:  Cross-over would be nice.

FAIRLEY:  But, it’s incredible just watching them grow up. 

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This Game is far from over.

Game of Thrones has been renewed for a fourth season, HBO announced Tuesday.

The pickup was considered inevitable even before the epic notched a new ratings record with Sunday’s Season 3 premiere. The episode drew a series-best audience of 4.4 million total viewers, rising 13 percent from the drama’s sophomore opener and up 4 percent from the previous finale.

Folding in two encores broadcasts, the premiere amassed 6.7 million viewers, up 7 percent versus Season 2′s opening night cume.

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It’s been a while since fans saw the Stark family together onscreen in”Game of Thrones.” Catelyn Stark said goodbye to her children Bran and Arya in Season 1, and hasn’t set eyes on either of them since. That’s why it was nice to see actors Michelle Fairley, Maisie Williams and Isaac Hempstead-Wright together once again at a recent press day for Season 3 of the hit HBO fantasy series.

Zap2it sat down with the trio during a roundtable interview and got some teases of what fans can expect in the next 10 episodes. Here are some spoiler-free highlights of what’s in store for Bran, Catelyn and Arya.

On what their characters are doing in Season 3…

Williams: “We kind of pick Arya up not too long after we left her and she’s just had her encounter with Jaqen H’ghar and she’s got the coin and all that. And I think maybe she’s got like a quiet confidence that she’s going to get home. To the boys she’s completely confident, but I think inside she’s doubting it a little bit. There’s a limited amount I can say but vaguely she’s got good feelings about what’s to come.”

Fairley: “Catelyn’s storyline picks up directly where it was left in Season 2. She’s still estranged from her son [Robb] because she has released Jaime Lannister in the hope that she’s going to get her daughters back in turn. The realization is dawning that she’s been duped and damaged the relationship with her son. And he is the only child she has any contact with. Basically it’s a progression of her becoming more introverted. She spends so much time on her own and she becomes reflective about the possibility she is the reason that this tragedy is happening to her family.”

Hempstead-Wright: “In Season 3 Bran’s group is joined by two new characters who add sort of a new dynamic to it and Bran’s storyline picks up in Season 3. In the past two seasons he has just been waiting in Winterfell and now he’s really striving toward something.”

“I think Bran this season starts to really control his own group, because in Season 2 we saw him take responsibility over Wnterfell, and now I think he’s taken responsibility over his own group and guided his own group.”

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Focus Features and Oregon-based animation house LAIKA, the companies behind the Oscar-nomninated stop-motion filmParaNorman, have announced their third collaborative project is set to begin with the kick off of production on The Boxtrolls. The new movie will be released nationwide by Focus on October 17, 2014, Focus CEO James Schamus and LAIKA President & CEO Travis Knight stated in the announcement.

The Boxtrolls is a 3-D stop-motion/CG hybrid animated feature, based on the popular fantasy adventure novel Here Be Monsters by Alan Snow. The film will be a comedic fable unfolding in the posh Victorian-era town of Cheesebridge obsessed with wealth, class and fine cheeses. Below its streets live the four monstrous Boxtrolls who come out at night to steal the townsfolk’s children…and cheese–or so it is thought. The Boxtrolls are actually quirky and lovable oddballs raising a human boy named Eggs. When their underground community is targeted by a malicious exterminator, the Boxtrolls must rely on their adopted boy and an adventurous rich girl to bridge the two worlds.

“The Boxtrolls is a visually dazzling mash-up of gripping detective story, absurdist comedy and steampunk adventure with a surprisingly wholesome heart,” says LAIKA’s Knight. “It’s Dickens by way of Monty Python. Tony [Stacchi] and Graham [Annable] have crafted a strange and beautiful world replete with fantastical creatures, good-for-nothing reprobates, madcap antics, and rip-roaring feats of derring-do. But at its core, like all LAIKA films, The Boxtrolls is a moving and human story with timelessness and powerful emotional resonance. We’re thrilled to partner with Focus Features and Universal to bring this remarkable story to family audiences around the world.”

The Boxtrolls is being directed by Anthony Stacchi (co-director of the hit animated featureOpen Season) and Graham Annable (story artist on Coraline and ParaNorman), and produced by David Ichioka and Travis Knight. The voice cast includes Academy Award winner Ben Kingsley, Academy Award nominee Toni Collette, Elle Fanning (marking her fourth movie with Focus), Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Game of Thrones), Emmy Award nominee Jared Harris (Mad Men), Simon Pegg (Star Trek), Nick Frost (of Focus’ upcomingThe World’s End), Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd), and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock).

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The text may contain spoilers!

Story:
It’s 1921 and Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall), author of “Seeing Through Ghosts” and London’s foremost expert on debunking paranormal hoaxes, has been called to a boarding house for young boys to investigate the mysterious death of a student that’s been linked to a ghost that’s said to haunt the school’s halls. Little does she know that there’s more to this place beyond being another job and there are ties to her own past that have lay dormant.

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While many people were watching Olympics coverage, there was another notable happening in the television industry over the weekend.

“Game Of Thrones” won the coveted Program of the Year prize at the 2012 Television Critics Association Awards on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

Other big show winners included “Breaking Bad” and “Downton Abbey.” “Homeland” actress Claire Danes and comedian Louis C.K. won the top acting awards.

David Letterman was honored with the Career Achievement Award, and the TCA paid homage to “Cheers” by presenting the beloved series with the Heritage Award.

Program of the Year: Game of Thrones

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Even if you don’t end up murdered like Ned Stark or Jon Arryn before him, acting as the Hand of the King is a thankless job.

As Game of Thrones approaches its Season 2 finale Sunday (9/8c, HBO), the cast of the period-fantasy series weighs in on arguably the most powerful job in the Seven Kingdoms: The Hand of the King (or Queen, as it were). The Hand acts as chief advisor, executes the ruler’s commands, is in charge of the army, drafts laws, dispenses justices, handles the day-to-day running of the kingdom, sits on the small council and even sits upon the Iron Throne to act on the king’s behalf when he is indisposed (or hunting wild boar).

Selecting a good Hand is critical. Not only must he be loyal, hardworking, fair and competent, but he should also balance the king’s less prudent notions or impulses. In short, the Hand must be better than the king! How’s that for a heavy job description?

Check out who the cast trusts as their chief advisors:

Bran Stark  (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) – If I were on the Iron Throne and I had to choose a Hand, I would want Tyrion. He seems to have every angle covered. But assuming I can’t have a Westerosi character, I would choose Sigmund Freud. He could get to work on Joffrey and Cersei’s complex relationship, and I would get Joffrey an electric guitar and lessons from Metallica as he needs to channel his blistering fury into something less psychopathic.

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Winding down its sophomore season with next Sunday’s finale, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” has already been confirmed to return for a third season in 2013. Today, EW has a special sneak preview at a list of names that fans can expect to make appearances in the epic George R.R. Martin adaptation.
Mance Rayder, Daario Naharis, Edmure Tully, Ser Brynden Tully (The Blackfish), Lady Selyse Florent, Shireen, Olenna Redwyne (The Queen of Thorns), Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr and Jojen and Meera Reed are the characters that are currently planned to play a part in season three, said to adapt events from “A Storm of Swords.” The magazine points out, though, that just because a character isn’t on that list doesn’t mean that he or she won’t show up on your television screen next year.
The cast of season two includes Emmy and Golden Globe winner Peter Dinklage, Michelle Fairley, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Aidan Gillen, Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Richard Madden, Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Sophie Turner, Jack Gleeson and Alfie Allen.
The series is executive produced by David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Carolyn Strauss, Frank Doelger with co-executive producers George R.R. Martin, Vanessa Taylor, Alan Taylor, Guymon Casady, Vince Gerardis and Bernadette Caulfield producing.

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The Game of Thrones players better not underestimate Arya.

On Sunday’s episode, the youngest Stark daughter proved that even a war prisoner turned cupbearer could make moves in the games. Her quick thinking definitely got her ahead. Who else triumphed? Who crashed and burned? TVGuide.com broke down the power shifts in “The Prince of Winterfell”:

Power Tripping:

Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright): Turns out that the young Stark and brother Rickon weren’t killed by Theon after all. They escaped on the road and then doubled back to hide out in Winterfell’s crypts.

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