I kind of wonder if the Game of Thrones casting team really thought that no one would notice when they switched actors for certain roles during different seasons. It’s understandable that scheduling conflicts and a desire to use someone that might be more suited to the role could be the reason why we ended up seeing such dramatic changes, but a few of them didn’t even come close to their earlier counterparts.
Check out some of these complete switcheroos they tried to pull on us.
Daario Naharis
Within a season he grew a beard and mustache, cut his hair and dyed it brown, and completely changed his facial features. Pretty good for a guy living in a time when even the word ‘plastic’ wasn’t heard of yet. Seriously, the casting team kind of fell down on this one.
The Night King
This one’s kind of forgivable since the outfit remained largely the same and so did the appearance. But the effect really looks like the one on the left is the younger version while the one on the right is what happens when a White Walker begins to age somehow.
Beric Dondarrion
There’s not a huge difference here except for the lost eye and a more rugged appearance given by the man on the right. Also the facial hair is very different despite having the same style.
Dickon Tarly
Sam’s ill-fated brother. It’s odd how they change things so quickly and expect no one to notice. The Tarly’s were actually not that well known in the show, so it’s kind of forgivable that they would make this attempt.
The Three-Eyed Raven
So somehow the Three-Eyed Raven cut his hair, removed all his facial hair, and managed to elongate his features to look like Max Von Sydow. This was such a horrible attempt at switching characters that fans actually cried foul despite the addition of such a great actor.
Lothar Frey
I think it’s easy to speak for most fans when I say that the entire Frey clan was built around such despicable people that they could have been replaced with monkeys and no one would have cared.
Rickard Karstark
They might be secondary characters but being so closely related to the Starks you would have thought that they would keep a closer eye on those that when switched could be noticed.
Selyse Baratheon
She went from being a redhead to a brunette. Now call me crazy, it’s been done before, but somehow it stands to reason that the show’s creators actively worked to make people forget about the first woman that played Stannis’ wife.
Tommen Baratheon
This is a fairly innocent switch. Why? Because no one really cared about Tommen until Joffrey was gone and it was his turn to become king. Wait, no one really cared about him then either. In fact the biggest impact he made in the show was when he took a swan dive from the balcony. Yes, yes I did say that.
Myrcella Baratheon
She’s another character that people barely noticed had been switched, and for the same reason. They only became relevant near the time of their deaths, which were used to show how Cersei was finally losing her grip and becoming the dreaded she-witch everyone already knew her to be.
The Mountain
So let’s run through this really quick. In the first incarnation he was balding, older, and had a REAL mean temper. In the second run through he had more hair on his head than on his face and looked like he’d been on a crash diet. The third and final showing of the Mountain shows him as a younger, definitely stronger and bigger man that can cleave someone in two on a backhand swing if he wanted. Somehow the Mountain just got better as he went along, but there was no doubt of the switch.
Game of Thrones is a great show no matter what anyone says, but they have a bad habit of switching people and THEN remembering to tell the audience.
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