[keg in kc]

Some interesting comments accumulated by sepinwall:

The third season of "Game of Thrones" is "probably as big as we're going to get," according to co-showrunner David Benioff, who joined partner D.B. Weiss on a press conference call to preview the HBO fantasy epic's return on Sunday night at 9.

"Season 3 is probably the biggest in terms of the number of new characters, number of new stories overall," Benioff explained. "The universe has expanded as much as it's going to, and now it's going to contract... As pieces start to get removed from the chessboard, we'll have fewer on there. We're nearly to the midpoint (of the story), and it'll be interesting to see what's going forward with the endgame."

The new season brings in a bunch of new characters, including King Beyond the Wall Mance Rayder (Ciaran Hinds), the wise and grandmatronly Olenna (Diana Rigg) and mysterious siblings Jojen and Meera Reed (Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Ellie Kendrick), among others. The season will be adapting, more or less, the first half of George R.R. Martin's third book in the series, "A Storm of Swords," though there are elements from both earlier and later books being included, depending on what makes sense for the TV show.

The Reeds, for instance, first appear in the second book, but Benioff explained that they held them for this season because "We just felt they'd make more impact coming in later... If things get too byzantine, it's so confusing that none of it adds up, and you're spending three minutes with characters per episode, and the whole thing becomes a wash."

They're as worried about when the remaining books come out as you are: Actually, "I guess we spend more time worrying than the fans," Benioff said. The two of them visited Martin at his home in Santa Fe back in February to pump him for information about where all the stories are going, so they can properly set them up in the world of the show, and "It was incredibly useful," according to Benioff.

"There's no question that this will be better for us if the books come out before the various seasons come out," Benioff added. "That said, we're not going to take a two-year hiatus (to wait for a book). The little kids are growing older, the show's got momentum now, and the show must go on. We're just hopeful that it will all time out."

There's a lot more. Link.