Game of Thrones Comic-Con panels are tough because there’s nothing to really show.  Unlike The Walking Dead, the new season isn’t only a few months away.  Shooting on GOT: Season 5 is just about to begin, so it’s not like there’s going to be a full trailer ready to go.  Instead, these panels function as retrospectives on the most recent season.  As a big Game of Thrones fan, I always enjoy these leisurely, pressure-free panels that almost function like debriefs.  We don’t know much about season five, but we’re going to learn about the most memorable scenes from last season

Hit the jump for my Game of Thrones Comic-Con panel recap. [Warning: Spoilers for the Show through Season 4]

Game of Thrones is such an atmospheric show, and so immersive, that it’s easy to forget that it’s a film set just like any other (okay, it has something like 5 units, but you know what I mean).  So seeing a blooper real for the show can be surprisingly disarming.  You so closely associate these characters with the cruel, high stakes world in which they live that seeing them crack a smile or break character is shockingly refreshing.

At the San Diego Comic-Con today, the Game of Thrones panel unveiled a blooper reel for this past season and it’s definitely worth a watch. We’ll have more in-depth coverage of the panel shortly, but you should kill a few minutes with this first.  Hit the jump for the Game of Thrones blooper reel.

George R.R. Martin spoke with William Christensen, publisher and editor in chief of Avatar Press, to promote their new collaborative comic book effort, In the House of the Worm. He also discussed his history with comics fandom, how the success of the Game of Thrones TV show has changed his experiences as a fan, and weighed in on Marvel vs. DC.

The first issue of In the House of the Worm is debuting here at Comic-Con, while Avatar’s previous Martin adaptation, Skin Trade, is (appropriately?) now collected in trade format. Signed editions of both will be available at Avatar’s booth in the Exhibition Hall. Hit the jump for my In the House of the Worm Comic-Con panel recap.

Writing this article sort of bums me out because I’m reminded that there are another nine months or so before Game of Thrones Season 5 premieres.  That being said, the gears on this show run year-round and the directing staff seems to have been firmed up.  And it appears that, in addition to a certain character many people were expecting to see at the end of Season 4, a few of the directors of your favorite episodes won’t be coming back for Season 5.

For instance, Neil Marshall (who handles a lot of the big battle episodes) is skipping this season.  So is Alex Graves. Even showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are staying behind their laptops (and away from the cameras) next year.  Hit the jump for more on the Game of Thrones Season 5 directors list.

The Friday schedule for San Diego Comic-Con 2014 has been announced.  It’s actually pretty tame as far as Hall H goes, with Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead being the highlight panels of the day.  RADiUS-TWC will make its SDCC debut with Horns, in which Daniel Radcliffe will also make his first appearance at Comic-Con.  Outside of Hall H, there’s also plenty of TV panels to go around, with The Legend of Korra, Arrow, Archer, Bob’s Burgers, Bates Motel, and a special Marvel TV panel all taking place.  Fox has also blocked out two hours in Hall H, during which time it’s expected to preview The Maze Runner, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, Let’s Be Cops, the animated Book of Life, and Hitman: Agent 47.  There have also been rumblings that we might get a peek at The Fantastic Four, which would make sense.

Hit the jump to take a look at some highlights from Friday’s schedule, and click here if you missed the Wednesday/Thursday schedule. Comic-Con 2014 runs from July 23rd to July 27th.

While at the HBO portion of the TCA Press Tour, President of Programming Michael Lombardo and Chairman and CEO Richard Plepler took some time to talk about new and returning programming.  During the interview, they spoke about how they’re not at all concerned about Game of Thrones getting further ahead than George R.R. Martin’s writing, that they plan to stick with the series until the story is finished, that Nic Pizzolatto’s first two scripts for the new season of True Detective are even more exciting than the first season, that they expect a casting announcement to be made in the next week, how they feel things are going with both Silicon Valley and The Leftovers, their strategy for drama, going forward, the progress of Westworld, and the status of the Ryan Murphy series, Open.  Check out what they had to say after the jump.

The 2014 Emmy Nominations were announced this morning, and they were about as surprising/disappointing as I expected.  We’re in the Golden Age of Television™, but no one seems to tell the Emmys.  Yes, True Detective and Fargo got some love, but so did the awful awards-bait The Normal Heart, which picked up four out of six nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie.  Then there are the usual suspects: Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, etc.  Among tge acting nominations, I would say I’m pleasantly surprised about Andre Braugher getting attention for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy for Brooklyn Nine-Nine and shocked that Kate Mara picked up an Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series nomination when really her CGI stunt double deserves all the credit.

Hit the jump to check out the full list of the major Emmy nominations.  The Emmy Awards will air live on NBC, Monday, August 25th at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT.

Before Thursday, when the real 2014 Emmy nominations will become known (and spark, probably, both outrage and boredom), there’s a chance to suggest who should be nominated in each major category.  This isn’t about winners and losers, but about recognizing some of the best talent on TV this past year (or the Emmy year: from June 1, 2013 to May 31, 2014).  There are sure to be some omissions and snubs even within my own list, so hit the jump to check out my choices (and occasional Emmy-rules-bending inclusions).

The characters fighting for Westeros in Game of Thrones are fighting mostly for CGI backdrops.  Like many others TV series and movies, visual effects is a huge part of the production process as it handles details both great and small.  A great credit to Game of Thrones is that the story is so good that we forget about the effects, and another great credit goes to the VFX team because their work is seamless.  If you want to see the seams, you have to get a visual breakdown of how the shots are put together.

Hit the jump to get a Game of Thrones VFX breakdown for season 4, and remember that every time you see a castle on the show, it’s probably made of pixels.  Also, in case you haven’t read it, click here for Steve’s interview with director Alex Graves about the season four finale.

In the dramatic thriller Heatstroke, a family trip in the African desert veers drastically off course when a research scientist (Stephen Dorff), his girlfriend (Svetlana Metkina) and his teenage daughter (Maisie Williams) come face-to-face with a group of dangerous arms dealers.  They face the ultimate test of survival, as they attempt to evade the killers and stay alive until they can make it back home.

During this exclusive phone interview with Collider, 16-year-old actress Maisie Williams (who turned in a terrific performance as Jo O’Malley, when she was just 14) talked about being drawn to strong female characters, not having to audition for the role, what she related to with Jo, what a great time she had shooting in South Africa, and the experience of getting to work with hyenas.  She also talked about being a part of the most-watched show in the history of HBO, as Arya Stark on Game of Thrones, when she realized that the show was getting to that next level in popularity, turning the page on who Arya used to be and becoming a much colder character, her favorite director to work with, and just how much she wants to go to Comic-Con in San Diego.  Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Most Game of Thrones fans know of the online furor that arose after the credits rolled on the show’s fourth season finale.  For book readers, there had been an omission: a character who makes an appearance in A Storm of Swords’ Epilogue.  From there, there was much discussion back and forth within the fandom and in a variety of media outlets over whether the omission was a good thing, to the point of whether the character should be eliminated from the storytelling altogether.  Hit the jump for a recent interview that could clear some of this speculation up, but warning, there will be MAJOR book spoilers about who the character is.

This week on The Collision, we’re joined by Allison Keene and Charles Judson to talk about the fourth season of Game of Thrones.  During our conversation, we talk about the season’s highs, lows, the benefits of departing from the book, what made “The Children” the best season finale thus far, the future of the series, and much more.  As always, we finish up with our recommendations.

Click here to listen to the new episode of The Collision, click here for the previous episode (“22 Jump Street and How to Train Your Dragon 2“), click here to add the podcast to your RSS, and click here to find us on iTunes. To keep up to date with The Collision, you can follow us on Twitter at @MattGoldberg and @AdamChitwood.

Like the rest of the planet, I’m completely smitten with HBO’s Game of Thrones.  Over the course of the first four 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.

Last Sunday, right after the season four finale aired, I got on the phone with director Game of Thrones director Alex Graves.  We talked about directing a lot of the big deaths over the course of the season (he directed four episodes this season), why the finale was a longer episode, deleted scenes, the VFX, his thoughts on fan reactions to the events of the season, directing “The Mountain and the Viper” (episode eight) and the brutal fight at the end of the episode, how he’ll be back for Game of Thrones season six, and a lot more.  Hit the jump for what he had to say about Game of Thrones season four.

Game of Thrones‘ fourth season ended with a great finale that left most of the major characters at turning points.  It also concluded (most) of the stories told in the exceptional book A Storm of Swords, which provided so many twists and turns (and so many deaths).  Now that the dust has settled though, it’s time to take a look at where things left off: Game of Thrones‘ macro structure has always been about power, and the struggle for it (or away from it) defines the series’ action.  Hit the jump for where the major Houses fall into line after “The Children,” and who is the most likely to sit upon the Iron Throne next year (there no book spoilers!)

HBO’s most popular TV series of all time, Game of Thrones, closed out its fourth season last night with almost certainly the show’s best finale yet.  Though traditionally the fantasy drama series has used its finales as a sort of denouement from the previous episode’s shocking events, last night’s episode packed a multitude of surprises, thrills, and emotion into a wholly satisfying 66 minutes.  Though we still have a while to wait before the show returns for season five, HBO has released a large gallery of images from last night’s episode for your perusing pleasure.  If you’re itching for a closer look at some of the more strange or impactful moments from the episode, these stills should be sufficient.

Hit the jump to check out the Game of Thrones season 4 finale images, and if you missed Allison’s recap of the episode, click here.