At first glance, Seattle might not seem like an most obvious choice for a star-studded red carpet premiere event for a hit television show. But the ties between the Emerald City and HBO turn out to be as strong as those between a great lord and his most faithful bannermen. We Seattleites, it seems, love our HBO and especially Game of Thrones.
The Seattle area is HBO’s most saturated market in the U.S., with the greatest ratio of subscribers to population. Additionally, Seattle is home to two of HBO’s most important recent business partners, Microsoft and Amazon, both of which are instrumental to HBO GO, the network’s streaming service.
What is it about George R. R. Martin’s epic tale of perpetual winter that seems to strike a chord with Seattle viewers? On a March day like today, it’s easy to see northern Winterfell as a stand-in for our fair city — the Wildlings are totally supposed to be French-Canadians, right?
Our pervasive fandom was apparent at Thursday night’s red carpet gala at the Cinerama, where the regular cast of news media representatives and entertainment reporters was salted with opportunistic Westeros disciples hoping to sneak a peek at the stars of the show (or maybe even to come away with a choice spoiler). Even the Seattle Times’ Bruce Ramsey traded in his editorial duties for the night to cover the event. A self-described fan, Ramsey spoke with fellow members of the media before the event about the books, the show, and even Seattle’s own upcoming mayoral Game of Thrones.
The red carpet featured appearances by several actors from the series, Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Rose Leslie (Ygritte) and Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), as well as (for some reason) some players from the Seattle Sounders. (Although promised, Duff McKagan never appeared.)
All of the actors were extremely friendly and generous with their time. Bradley spoke in defense of his character, refuting the suggestion that Sam is somehow “so sexually bereft” that he would jump on the first woman he sees. Harington and Leslie answered many (too many?) questions about the “fun” of filming sex scenes. Natalie Dormer, in particular, was exceptionally chatty, at one point talking the ear off of a blogger about Margaery’s motivations and upcoming storylines with a level of enthusiasm and detail that didn’t seem sustainable on a long promotional tour. No one was complaining. At one point, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau did a little dance that brought a woman watching from outside the Cinerama to a Beatlemania level of sobbing.
Inside the theater, HBO COO Eric Kessler made a prescient joke comparing Seattle’s weather to being “North of the Wall” and thanked both Amazon and Microsoft, both of which were amply represented in the audience. Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss introduced the cast and the screening (Benioff’s gave a shoutout to Microsoft, citing his original ownership of Word 1.1). The introduction of Maisie Williams was greeted with the greatest applause, as Arya Stark has quickly become everyone’s favorite-character-who-is-not-Tyrion.
Then the lights went down for the premiere. Season 3 picks up directly following the events of the Season 2 finale, dropping right into the action and the aftermath of Season 2’s climax. The opening episode was true to form, with plenty of intrigue and the portent of big things to come, along with the requisite severed head, mutilation, token nudity, and dragons. No spoilers here, but from the looks of the first episode, fans of the show will not be disappointed with Season 3.
And while watching Game of Thrones on the huge Cinerama screen was a real treat, it underscored (along with the tech heavy audience) the fact that for an increasing number of viewers (including this one) who do not subscribe to cable TV, it will still be many months before this latest season is available to watch (legally).
Despite the success of its HBO Go platform for subscribers, the network still has not made a standalone app available, and has eschewed releasing TV shows on iTunes or Amazon video during the season (as AMC does with its own hit shows), preferring to treat the growing streaming market as part of its home video strategy. For now, HBO is content to just leave the growing piles of streaming money on the table, and the best option for those of us without cable is still to “borrow” an HBO Go login or get invited to a friend’s house, or wait until this latest season is released on DVD and the various download services.
After the screening, HBO hosted a party in the EMP Sky Church, complete with a spread of Westeros-inspired food catered by Wolfgang Puck’s. A healthy selection of kebabs, giant bowls of steaming shellfish (best shelled by hand or mouth) and, of course, the official Game of Thrones beer — a delicious blonde ale brewed by the good folks at Ommegang Brewery. Even the Seven Kingdoms should be able to come together in agreement over that.
The stars were brought out for photos with the partygoers — heavily populated by techies in their finest duds and a smattering of local celebs (I think I spotted Neal Stephenson going for a helping of kebabs). The biggest hit of the party was a replica of the Iron Throne itself was on site for those who dared reap the terrible burden of sitting upon it, and to tweet the resulting photographs to their followers.