To promote the new Game of Thrones companion book, HBO has teased this making-of feature, sure to be included with the season two bonus materials.

Always good to have more Game of Thrones.

[themarysue]

Hopefully the final chapter in the George W. Bush-severed head debacle, Deadline reports that the offending episode is back online, with a digitally altered face to boot. All future box sets of the program should also contain the edited image, and quite possibly an alternate audio commentary.

[deadline]

HBO has announced it will begin selling life-size replicas of the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones.

Unlike the real Iron Throne, the replicas are made from fiberglass and resin instead of actual swords. But like the real Iron Throne, one of these won't be yours unless you've got plenty of money in reserve: they're selling for $30,000 a piece, plus $1,800 shipping.

[nyt.]

It's official: HBO has renewed Game of Thrones for a third season, after just two episodes of season 2.

Season 3 will span 10 episodes, which producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss say won't be enough to cover all of the events of the third book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire.

Weiss:

A Storm of Swords is too long to fit in a single season. ... And as readers know, A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons take place during roughly the same time frame, so we'll have to fold those together. The plan, if we're lucky enough to be given the opportunity to see it through, is to use as many seasons as we need to tell the story as a whole, to do justice to George's entire opus.

If Game of Thrones keeps pulling in stellar ratings and cleaning up at awards shows, it looks like there's a good chance they'll get that opportunity.

[blastr]

HBO segues into the return of Game of Thrones with a 22-minute special featuring the show's creators and stars recapping the story so far and looking ahead to what the major players will have to deal with as war rages in Westeros.

Kit Harington says season 2 "doesn't hold back any punches," and Peter Dinklage promises that "fans who want blood and battle won't be disappointed."

If you want to skip past the interviews, the previously unreleased season 2 footage begins at around 19:25.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO on April 1st.

[vulture]

HBO has released a second official poster for season 2 of Game of Thrones, adding a hand grasping the crown of Westeros to season 2's "War is Coming" tagline.

The big question, of course, is who will wear that crown and sit the Iron Throne. Season 2 is based on A Clash of Kings, which focuses on a number of would-be rulers.

Game of Thrones returns to TV on April 1st, but in the meantime, German developer Bigpoint Software has announced that it will release a massively multiplayer RPG based on the HBO series.

The company plans to preview the new game at next week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

[warmingglow]