Any Game of Thrones episode with a name like “Breaker of Chains” is undoubtedly going to star Dany, Mother of Dragons and Freer of Slaves.  But “Breaker of Chains” also did a lot more, orienting characters and viewers in the aftermath of last week’s big moment.  A Storm of Swords is an excellent book, and the episode sticking so close to the source material made it an episode filled with necessary world-building, history and purpose.  How many Starks are they going to behead before you hit the jump?

Like the rest of the planet, I’m completely smitten with HBO’s Game of Thrones.  Over the course of the first three seasons, the show has broken every conventional rule about what a TV show can do, and has grown in popularity every year.  While we’re only half way through the seven seasons that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are aiming for, if they keep the quality at the current level, Game of Thrones will go down as one of the best shows of all time.  I know it’s rising up my list of favorite TV shows and it shows no signs of slowing down, especially after watching the first three episodes of season four.

With some big events happening last Sunday night, I recently landed an exclusive interview with Game of Thrones director Alex Graves.  Not only did he direct last week’s episode, The Lion and the Rose, which included the “Purple Wedding,” he’s directing this weeks, as well as two more episodes this season, including the finale.  Graves talked about how he got involved in the show, shooting the wedding and the moment fans have been waiting for, how GOT production schedule is different than other shows, what kinds of cameras they use (including how he used a GoPro for a few shots), how they’re always working on the VFX until the last minute, how the fourth season finale has a massive battle, why he won’t be back for season 5, and so much more.  In addition, since Graves worked on NBC’s short lived series, Journeyman (which is also worth watching), we talked about that show and what else he’s developing.  If you’re a Game of Thrones fan you’ll learn a lot about how the show is made without spoilers.

Game of Thrones’ most lasting impression may be its changeability.  No show has perhaps ever been so difficult to predict, even for those who have read the books.  The stories go in ways that are unexpected.  It’s what George R. R. Martin does so well: subverting fantasy tropes.  Last week, the theme was transformation, and it looks like it’s going to be a season-long motif.  “The Lion and The Rose” was also about a world in flux, and Game of Thrones continued to prove that it has the ability to change things up like no one else.  Hit the jump for more on “the dwarf, the cripple, and the mother of madness.”

If you live in the Los Angeles area and want to see some cool art, you need to get over to the Hero Complex Gallery.  That’s because the gallery is hosting Craig Drake’s first solo show and it’s loaded with awesome artwork done on paper, metal (including mega metal prints that are 60 x 40!), and wood.  While I’ve been a fan of Drake’s work for a long time, I’ll admit the show was another level.  As you can see in the pictures, Drake took on some iconic movies, people, and TV shows including Die Hard, The Thing, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Bruce Lee, Buffy, Cowboy Bebop, Game of Thrones, and a lot more.

Since most of you live outside of Los Angeles, I took pictures of everything on display and you can check out over 40 pictures after the jump.  In addition, the gallery will be releasing what didn’t sell out on their website tomorrow, so no matter where you live, you can purchase something.  Be warned, if you check out the pictures you’re probably going to want to buy something.

In news that should be shocking to absolutely no one, HBO has ordered two more seasons of Game of Thrones.  This makes sense since not only did season four premiere to record ratings, but three weeks ago showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff signed on for two more seasons.  It’s a little funny that they would sign on to a show that hadn’t “officially” renewed (theoretically, what does someone do if they’ve signed on to a show that doesn’t exist?), but fans who unreasonably worried that the show wouldn’t continue can put their fears to rest.  Your beloved characters are sure to die for years to come.

Hit the jump for the press release.  The fourth season of Game of Thrones airs Sunday at 9/8c on HBO.

TV ratings for Sunday evening are in, and unsurprisingly HBO has a stellar night.  Here’s a brief look at the highlights:

• The season four premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones scored a record 6.6 million viewers, which is up a whopping 2.2 million from last year’s 4.4 million premiere.  Adding in the encore’s 1.6 million viewers, the show totaled 8.2 million viewers on Sunday night.  The opener topped the previous Game of Thrones record of 5.5 million, which it hit in the third episode of season three, and last night’s episode was the most-watched HBO telecast since the series finale of The Sopranos.
• Additionally, the series premiere of the excellent new comedy series Silicon Valley brought in 2 million viewers, scoring the network’s biggest half-hour launch since 2009’s Hung.  The season three premiere of Veep (also fantastic) averaged 1 million viewers, which is even with its season two finale.

Hit the jump for the rest of the ratings report for Sunday, April 6th, including Once Upon a Time, Believe, Crisis, Family Guy, and more.

There’s a reason why HBO had a twenty-five-minute recap of Game of Thrones‘ third season in preparation for the fourth: the tales have become more varied and twisted than the swords that make up the Iron Throne.  Picking up halfway through A Storm of Swords‘ story (the massive third book of the Song of Ice and Fire series), Game of Thrones‘ new season had a lot to catch up on, and a lot to explain moving forward.  The most powerful and meaningful sequence though was its first: the Lannisters are not just conquering their enemies, they’re gobbling them up and repurposing them.  Hit the jump for more.

The fourth season premiere of HBO’s massively popular drama series Game of Thrones is just a few short days away, and in anticipation of the event, the network has unveiled a new gallery of images teasing the new season.  These 10 episodes will cover roughly the second half of the third book in George R.R. Martin’s series, A Storm of Swords, and as we can see in these images, many characters will find themselves in precarious situations.  Most notably, this new image gallery gives us a close look at Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) dragons, which have grown considerably since we last saw them.

Hit the jump to take a look at the images.  The show also stars Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Charles Dance, Kit Harington, Rose Leslie, Natalie Dormer, Gwendoline Christie, and Jack Gleeson.  Game of Thrones season four premieres on HBO Sunday, April 6th.  Check back here on Collider after the episode to read Allison’s full recap.

I love beer, I love television, and I love creative cross-over marketing, so today’s bit of offbeat news is my holy trinity.  Some of these brews have been around for a while and others are being released this very weekend!  Here they are at a glance:

• Game of Thrones – Ommegang Brewery has already churned out the Iron Throne blonde ale, and the Take the Black Stout for past seasons of HBO’s hit show, but their latest effort, Fire and Blood red ale, will release on March 31st.  Season four debuts Sunday April 6th.
• Star Trek – The first official Star Trek beer, Klingon Warnog, will be brewed by the Indiana-based Tin Man Brewing Co.  You can only drink this dunkelweizen if you’ve successfully performed the Rite of Ascension and endured torture by painstiks.
• The Walking Dead – Just in time for the season four finale of AMC’s hit series is this new brainy brew from Dock Street Brewing Co. in Philly.  This Walker’s an American Pale Stout brewed with smoked goat brains. YUP!

Hit the jump for more information on each of these delicious drinks.

In what will likely be the most obvious piece of news you read today, Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff aren’t going anywhere for the next two seasons.  The show has been their baby, they spent years trying to get it on the air, and they know the overall arc of the story even though author George R.R. Martin hasn’t finished the last two books.  They even recently said that the show will end after seven or eight seasons (and maybe with a movie).  It’s odd that EW would even bother exclaiming this story as an “exclusive”.  If I tell you the sun is going to come up tomorrow, it’s a bit silly to claim that as exclusive information.  EW does note that a fifth season hasn’t officially been ordered, so I eagerly await that “exclusive” about something that’s in no way surprising.

The show stars Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Charles Dance, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maisie Williams, Aiden Turner, Iain Glen, Rose Leslie, Carice Van Houten, Alfie Allen, Diana Rigg, Natalie Dormer, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, and Isaac Hempstead Wright.  New cast this season include Pedro Pascal, Michiel Huisman, and Indira Varma.  Game of Thrones returns on April 6th at 9pm on HBO.

Game of Thrones is a juggernaut of a TV series.  Not only is it incredibly popular on HBO, but home video sales are a massive money-maker for the network and the fandom surrounding the series has reached massive proportions.  The series is, of course, based on author George R.R. Martin’s sprawling book series A Song of Ice and Fire, and while the production value of the HBO adaptation is impressive, fans have often wondered what Game of Thrones would look like on the big screen.

According to Martin, the prospect of a Game of Thrones movie is actually in active discussion, though it appears to be very, very early in the process so nothing’s quite firmed up.  Read his full comments after the jump, which include his plan for how the TV show (hopefully) won’t catch up to his book series.

Pretty much the only thing that could cut into tonight’s Marvel movie coverage was the fourth and final trailer for the upcoming fourth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones.  Hopefully you’re sold on the series at this point; otherwise you only have a couple of weeks to get caught up and dodge through the minefield of spoilers this show leaves in its wake.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The show stars Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Charles Dance, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Maisie Williams, Aiden Turner, Iain Glen, Rose Leslie, Carice Van Houten, Alfie Allen, Diana Rigg, Natalie Dormer, Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, and Isaac Hempstead Wright.  New cast this season include Pedro Pascal, Michiel Huisman, and Indira Varma.  Game of Thrones returns on April 6th at 9pm on HBO.

While many lament that 10 episodes for each season of HBO’s incredibly popular fantasy drama series Game of Thrones just isn’t enough, the amount of work that goes into producing those episodes is absolutely massive; it’s exhausting just to read about, let alone actually do.  In anticipation of the fourth season premiering in just a few short weeks, HBO has released a really funny 5-minute behind-the-scenes video that runs down the history of the series and how it’s made.  Creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss discuss the difficulty of getting the pilot made, its less-than-enthusiastic response from HBO executives, their initial meeting with author George R.R. Martin, their writing process for the show, and much more.  It’s a really fun watch, but those who aren’t caught up should beware: it does get into spoiler territory from the previous three seasons.

Hit the jump to watch Game of Thrones: Long Story Short.  The fourth season premieres on HBO Sunday, April 6th.

The fourth season premiere of HBO’s incredibly popular fantasy drama series Game of Thrones is less than a month away, but given the massive amount of characters involved in the show, there’s no shame in admitting you might need a bit of a refresher before the new season begins.  The first three seasons are available in their entirety on On Demand and HBO Go, but if you don’t have time to rewatch full episodes, the pay cable network has unveiled a 25-minute recap of the bloody events from last season.  It’s a fun watch even if you’re just a fan of the show and don’t necessarily need a recap, and it serves as a suitable appetizer for what’s sure to be an interesting fourth season.  And now, with the news that the series will likely end after season seven, savoring every last bit of Game of Thrones goodness seems prudent.

Hit the jump to watch the video recap.  Game of Thrones season four premieres on HBO Sunday, April 6th at 9pm ET/PT.

There’s still no word on when A Song of Fire and Ice author George R.R. Martin will release the final two novels in the series, but the HBO adaptation, Game of Thrones, has decided to set their plans regardless.  In an interview with Vanity Fair, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss say they would like to wrap the TV series up after seven or eight seasons.  “It doesn’t just keep on going because it can,” Weiss says. “I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that.”

Hit the jump for more on how Benioff, Weiss, and Martin are planning ahead.  Game of Thrones returns for its fourth season on April 6th at 9pm.