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 The medieval fantasy drama's fan base has grown substantially
over its first three seasons, with sizable followings among both
men and women thanks to its wrenching interpersonal
relationships, complex plotting, and, being HBO, plenty of sex
and violence.
The show is based on the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of
novels by George R.R. Martin, of which five of an expected seven
have been published. It takes place in the fictional world of
Westeros, following more than two dozen regular characters amid
a war for dominion between noble houses.
In addition to the squabbling between regions and families, the
characters also face external threats, including dragons and the
"White Walkers," nearly unkillable creatures from the far
northern part of the world who can animate the dead.
The third season of the show climaxed with what is now known as
the "Red Wedding," where three primary characters were
treacherously murdered along with scores of others at a wedding
feast. For some shows, that might be difficult to top, but cast
members said this year's season will be even more dynamic, so as
to not lose momentum with a growing audience.
"There just seems to be a whole new army of people watching the
show for the first time. The more fans you have, the more
pressure you feel to keep up the quality of the product," actor
John Bradley, said in a recent interview along with other cast
members. He plays Samwell Tarly, a member of the Night's Watch,
the ancient order that protects Westeros from threats in the
frozen north.
Last year, the show averaged 14.4 million viewers across all
platforms, only about 50,000 viewers shy of HBO's most-watched
show ever, the sixth season of the mob family drama "The
Sopranos." Among cable dramas, it is second in viewership,
trailing only basic cable's zombie apocalypse saga "The Walking
Dead" on AMC Newtworks Inc, which is averaging 17.6 million
viewers in its fourth season.
Women make up 42 percent of the audience, and while that's not
quite even, it still makes the female viewing contingent larger
than AMC's methampetamine thriller "Breaking Bad," whose final
season audience was 37 percent women, according to Nielsen.
As "Game of Thrones" has grown and its reach has expanded — it
airs in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide — so
too has the business of the show.
HBO's subscription revenue grew by 6 percent, or $221 million,
in 2013, according to earnings reports from its parent, Time
Warner Inc. The company noted in its August results that
viewership for "Thrones" rose 20 percent. A fifth season has not
been officially renewed, according to an HBO spokeswoman, but
the show's success makes it hard to imagine it won't keep going.
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The franchise has spawned 350 kinds of merchandise available on
HBO's website, and more recently the release of a hip-hop
mixtape headed by Common and other rap artists. Common notably
performed his entry to the soundtrack at a sneak preview of the
show's first episode in Brooklyn, New York on March 20.
The cast members see it as well, particularly on social media.
Maisie Williams, 16, who plays fan favorite Arya Stark, said she
picked up more than 40,000 followers on Twitter during the
offseason. She has a big fan base on other social media sites like
Vine and Instagram — in part due to a goofy video she posted after
the Red Wedding where she joked about the death of her "family."
"That really blew up — I went from having about 1,000 followers on
Vine to having about 100,000," she said.
OLD AND NEW FACES
The fourth season finds numerous major characters in King's Landing,
the capital city of Westeros, where they are gathering for the
impending wedding of Joffrey, the cruel, young king who stands
shoulder to shoulder with the more notable villains in television
history.
There are new faces, too, most notably Prince Oberyn Martell,
nicknamed the "Red Viper." The prince comes to the capital to attend
Joffrey's wedding but also has ulterior motives, like so many on the
show.
The character, whose swagger made him a favorite among readers, is
played with steely resolve by Pedro Pascal, a Chile-born actor whose
family left that country as political refugees when he was 4, and
who was raised in the United States.
For Pascal, his character's accent is a callback to his parentage:
The script "didn't specify what he was supposed to sound like. ... I
think without thinking about it too much, it came naturally for him
to sound like my dad."
Pascal is one of 29 regular characters on the show, most of whom
fall somewhere between good and evil on the moral spectrum. Some,
including the conflicted, incestuous knight Jaime Lannister, played
by Nicolaj-Coster Waldau, have seen their morals shift over time, as
his character has become one of the more sympathetic over the course
of the show.
"You realize no one is good and no one is bad," said actress
Williams. "We're starting to see the other side to these evil
characters.
"And then there's Joffrey."
(Additional reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles;
editing by
Mary Milliken and Jonathan Oatis)
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