The closer we get to season 2 filming, the more casting announcements we get for Game of Thrones! After having Melisandre, Stannis, Davos, Brienne and Margeary cast, now comes a Greyjoy and a Merchant Prince of the free city of Qarth! The Greyjoy that was cast is Theon’s sister Asha, who’s name was changed to Yara for the show. More on that in a minute. The merchant of Qarth is Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a fella that Daenerys runs afoul of during her travels.

Theon’s sister Yara (Asha) is being played by Gemma Whelan, a relative newcomer in my eyes. The only thing that I’ve seen with her in it was The Wolfman with Anthony Hopkins and Benecio Del Toro, but let’s face it: We’re all trying to forget that movie.

I have no problem with the actress playing Yara (Asha), but I can’t get over the fact that they changed her name to Yara to avoid confusion between Asha and another character, the wildling woman Osha. Really? Are people just assumed to be so stupid that they can’t figure out the difference between two characters with a different vowel to start off their name? Seriously they change it to Yara why? So it can sound almost like Arya? Good call boys, good call. Regardless of the name, I’m very much looking forward to seeing Yara (Asha) making her debut on the show. In the books Asha was a cocky, young, Ironborn girl who is a skilled fighter. She’s definitely not the lady type most daughters of a King would be, but everyone will soon find out that the Iron Islands make up one of the harshest kingdoms in all of Westeros.

Playing Xaro is the actor Nonso Anozie who is also another newcomer, but is in the upcoming Conan The Barbarian movie starring a Game of Thrones alum Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo in season 1. I wasn’t really impressed with the character in the book. You’ll come to see that characters like Xaro are a dime a dozen by the fourth season.

The cast is growing but as I said before there are still plenty of characters to be cast, most of them secondary and brief characters but interesting nonetheless. Stay tuned as we bring them to you!