Game of Thrones season 4 is coming. (Four years in, and yes, that joke is still going strong.) Filming for the epic HBO series has officially kicked off in Northern Ireland.
Production assistant Cat Taylor has revealed via Twitter that today marks the beginning of filming Game of Thrones season 4:
We are officially rolling. Day one, Season 4. It has begun.
— Cat Taylor (@CatonSet) July 8, 2013
The cast and crew will begin filming in Northern Ireland, and units will be heading to Iceland and Croatia later this month.
Season 4 of Game of Thrones will span roughly the second half of the third novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, A Storm of Swords.
It will pick up after the shocking conclusion to season 3, which saw Robb Stark and his mother Catelyn slain by Walder Frey, Jon Snow split from the Wildlings, and Daenerys freeing the slaves in the city of Yunkai.
Casting for season 4 is still ongoing; recently, we learned that actor Pedro Pascal will be playing The Red Viper (Oberyn Martell), but there are still several major roles that need to be filled.
Later this month, several main cast members will be appearing at the Game of Thrones panel at San Diego Comic-Con, along with ASOIAF author George R.R. Martin and HBO series showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
See the full list of panel attendees along with more details about the event here on Hypable.