You don't argue with Charles Dance.  If he says HBO's Game of Thrones is going to be renewed for a fourth season, then you damn well better believe it and then thank him for not feeding you to the pigs.  While HBO was quick to point out that Dance's comment on prepping for the upcoming fourth season isn't exactly officially binding since the cast and crew do a lot of pre-production work before going into filming, I'd be one surprised Westerosi if Game of Thrones didn't get renewed for season four.  Since the upcoming third season only tackles half of George R.R. Martin's third novel in the series, they would at the very least need to wrap things up.  It's looking more likely that HBO will catch up to Martin's plots before the author finishes them himself!

Game of Thrones returns to HBO for its third season starting Sunday, March 31st at 9pm. Hit the jump to see what Dance had to say.

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At a recent press conference for Game of Thrones Season Two Blu-ray, Den of Geek (via Fanhattan) reports Dance as saying the following:

“We’re about to start season four aren’t we? This year. We get scripts pretty early on, much earlier on than in similar series, usually you get perhaps one episode and you just have to trust that what’s going to come in subsequent episodes is going to be as good as the one you’ve got, but in this I think there are six scripts already written, and we will probably be able to see them with more than adequate time to prepare before we start shooting.”

Owing to the scale and detail of the Game of Thrones productions, it's no surprise that the cast is getting scripts this early on.  Don't be surprised if you hear an official pick-up announcement soon after this season kicks off.  In the meantime, check out the latest images and trailers from HBO's third season of Game of Thrones below:

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