You know how it is. You’re a critically and commercially lauded premium cable TV show preparing to cook up a sixth season of sex and graphic fantasy violence. Realizing your recipe calls for a dash of murderous Ironborn pirates, you go to the cupboard, only to see that your supply is running low. Two of them haven’t been seen in a few seasons, while the main one isn’t in much of a state for pillaging or sailing around. You’re gonna need another Greyjoy.
Actor Pilou Asbæk has signed on for the sixth season of Game Of Thrones, playing vicious pirate Euron Greyjoy, uncle to the luck-deprived Theon. A cunning manipulator and vicious opponent, Euron is a prominent force in the novels on which the series is based, where the political intrigues of the Greyjoy family (including Euron’s brothers, the brutish Victarion and religious zealot Aeron) take up a lot of as-yet-unexplored territory. Asbæk, who’s originally from Denmark, previously co-starred in last year’s Lucy as the cowboy-hatted dope who accidentally gets Scarlett Johansson turned into a brain-potential-using super-god.
Asbæk is just the latest name to be added to Game Of Thrones’ roster for its upcoming sixth season. Ian McShane has also been announced for an unnamed role, and Max Van Sydow will appear as the latest incarnation of Bran Stark’s mystical mentor, the three-eyed raven. (Euron Greyjoy, meanwhile, only has one eye, and is known as “Crow’s Eye,” so apparently this is a big season for birds with uncommon numbers of eyes.)