EXCLUSIVE: Leading Game of Thrones actor and Emmy winner Peter Dinklage will not return to HBO’s flagship program for a fourth season in 2014. In a press conference the morning of April 1st, 2013 show creators David Benioff, Dan Weiss alongside George R.R. Martin made the announcement to stunned members of the media.
“Today is both a sad day and an exciting one for HBO’s Game of Thrones,” Benioff began. “Sad because we’ve all gotten to know Peter on set and love him dearly as a friend. We’ll miss him sorely. Exciting because we’re heading in an entirely new direction with the character of Tyrion Lannister for season 4.”
Members of the press began to stir and murmur in anticipation of what the show creators, who had seemed so stable and reliable up until this moment, had to say next. Producer Dan Weiss continued the explanation adding, “It was a unanimous decision between David, myself, Peter and George. We want to take Tyrion in a more comedic, farcical direction and everyone including Peter agreed that he just wasn’t the man for the job. I’ll let the other guys speak for themselves but for me the choice was as clear as a crystal crown. Warwick Davis will be our new Tyrion Lannister!”
Just then Warwick Davis, a British comedian best known for his roles in Star Wars, Harry Potter and the HBO comedy Life’s Too Short, stepped into the room to flashing cameras and even more commotion from members of the press. Warwick then took a seat next to Martin.
When asked whether he approved of this decision, George R.R Martin responded enthusiastically:
“Warwick was actually my pick back in 2009 when we first began looking at potential cast members. It finally hit me last week while taking an indefinite break from writing The Winds of Winter to catch up on some of my favorite movies. I think it was his epic role in Willow that finally convinced me. Such wit. Such… tenderness.”
Warwick has reportedly asked for 1 million dollars per episode, amounting to nearly 20 percent of the show’s 50 million dollar per season budget. “We felt that Warwick’s experience and star power was well worth the investment,” Weiss said. “We’ll be seeing a lot less of the dragons and direwovlves due to the new budgeting that will have to be done to compensate. But in the end it’s a small price to pay for this kind of acting gravitas.”
The producers also noted that, in an effort to maintain continuity, Warwick Davis’ face will be digitally transposed over Mr. Dinklage’s in all future releases of Game of Thrones on DVD and Blu-Ray.
At this point many members of the media began to shout out pertinent questions such as “How does Peter feel about all this?” and “Are you fuc@!n6 serious right now?” but the Game of Thrones show-runners were already on their way out the door, waving and patting each other on the back as they went.
Peter Dinklage himself could not be reached for comment in a recent interview the actor expressed feeling anxious about devoting so much time to a single project:
“I’ll tell you true.. Game of Thrones has been a wonderful experience all around, certainly. But I do wonder if I’m not limiting myself in some ways. I recently had to turn down a part playing Kelly’s newest love interest on The Big Bang Theory. I love that show! It killed me to have to turn it down.”
This reporter, for one, stands in shock and awe at the decision handed down this, the first day of April. Today was supposed to be a great day for Game of Thrones fans with season 3 kicking off last night and an almost assured announcement regarding a fourth season. I suppose we should all just take a deep breath and trust in the wisdom of the producers and creators that brought us this wonderful show in the first place.
We’ll update this piece when we know more about the fate of Tyrion Lannister.
Goodbye, Peter.
UPDATE: April Fools!
I know, I know this was one of the cruelest jokes anyone could have played on the first of April.. and just hours after the season 3 premiere! Everyone would be devastated if something happened to Peter and his relationship with Tyrion Lannister. To be fair we did give you some hints along the way (give it a re-read if you were fooled!). Though we understand that many of you couldn’t get past the headline without tears of rage/sadness filling your eyes leaving you unable to read and/or think straight.
We apologize for any hurt feelings, friends lost or keyboards/monitors smashed as the result of our little April fools gag. We know most of you took it in stride. Rest assured that Game of Thrones will premiere next year airing around the same time as last year’s start and you’ll be watching it online with HBO GO as easily as ever. You can even stream Game of Thrones for free online with HBO Now, these days.
We felt like trolls all day but we hope the majority of our readers had a good little laugh. We promise we won’t ever do this again… on our honor as Lannisters. Until next year…
1,182 comments
Haha Theres no way HBO could do that. I laughed at the announcement cause theres just no way they could replace him. Even if Peter died HBO would have to get their special effects crew working on a cgi version of him. Of all the terrific characters in GOT hes the best. I just couldn’t continue to watch without him. You rock Peter and I am glad they were joking.
omg, this is NOT a funny joke @ all! Peter Dinklage IS the very best Tyrion Lannister!!!
Right now he is the only Tyrion Lannister, so technically he is also the worst.
Peter rocks it out! I loved him in Find Me Guilty, Elf and I am looking forward to Knights of Badassdom and his CONTINUED role on GOT. Willow, Leprechaun, Acorn and the not so recognizable Wicket (Ewok)….Warwick is a great actor but no else could play Tyrion at this point without a huge outcry….good prank HBO
thank’s God it’s a joke,
not funny :(
PLEASE do this again, HBO!!! This was a GREAT joke! Don’t stop making jokes just because a few people can’t take ’em! It was good to see the people at HBO have a good sense of humor as well as giving us the best shows on TV right now. AWESOME joke! :D
I just had a small heart attack!
Ya that would suck
So Game of Thrones goes the way of Deadwood…
Keep the integrity! Tyrion won’t be Tyrion anymore!
He’ll be a pretender!
I find it funny that no one is actually talking about GoT, just fighting about other shows lol
I love how half of these comments devolved into some sort of hipster debate on the worth of The Big Bang Theory.
Amazingly, no homes of HBO employees, or HBO offices were burned to the ground minutes after the release of their little joke. :P
that was just mean!
That wasent nice at all.
OMG I was about to freak out that we would see less dragons and direwolves due to Warwick demanding 1 million per episode!!!! WTF?! so glad this is an April fools!! I love Peter Dinklage….one of my favorite characters.
I believed it because Tyrion is seems a lot uglier in the books.
Oh, god! I was about to start writing angry hate mail! I would rather see his character killed off, than see him replaced! I should have known it was a joke, when they said that Peter wasn’t the man for a more comedic role. His character is the only comedic one in the show, and he plays it perfectly!
He totally sounds like Michael McIntyre.
For God sake, I thought this was for real!!! I was going crazy already…
I fainted when I read ‘while on an indefinite break from writing winds of winter’s -_-
I was getting ready to flip out! LMAO!!!
Evil but also very, very awesome!!
I rather watch the dragons and wolves than Warwick.
I really believed it, but then I thought twice when they said they were going to put Warwick Davis’ face over Peter Dinklage in future GOT DVD releases ….good one …
YOOOOOOO….. I was so angry. I should have known something was up. I told a couple of my friends about this. only to be told that it wasnt true.
you guys are dead wrong. thats my favorite show. I was really mad about this. thats not funny
I was not about to watch the fourth season. best April Fools yet.
that is a cruel joke. i was considering not watching the 4th season.
great joke george …back at ya only thing on primiere draw back is that you didnt 2 hour primiere..at in the house showing my place ,with -in comments at end of thee opening show, with a plus + rating …e-mail request tom edick on facebook and can spill the minor script changes and a costume failure
got me good lmao!
Drop dead.
As soon as I saw that it would be Willow, I knew it was an April Fools joke but SHAME, SHAME, SHAME! One simply doesn’t walk a new face into Tyrion Lannister’s shoes.
I was just about to punch the screen of my laptop -.-”
Unfortunately, i read this article on April 2 and almost got a heart attck. Damn you !
That is not nice!!! Bastards!!!
And Peter, we want to see you on BBT anyway!!!!
i cried a lot, you cruel bastards
Everything always descends to, “Big Bang Theory is shit” which it is, because it’s tedious, predictable, clichéd and lazy, nothing at all to do with science and everything to do with bad writing. The fact that it gets 20 million viewers per week is not a measure of quality, it’s a measure of intelligence, or lack thereof.
Bastards! I nearly had a stroke thinking the Willow fella was gonna replace my Tyrion. Cruel. Very cruel -_-
OMG!!! Was skimming this while panicking going NOOOOO!!!!!
Mean joke HBO, mean, mean joke.
Thank GOD that was a joke! Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion is my favorite book-to-screen character of all time. He is a master!
Eventualy Tyrion does die, so when I saw that he wasn’t returning I just assumed they were going to kill him off at the end of this season.
WHY DID YOU SAY THAT?! WHY WHY WHY??
words are like bullets lol
HA!!! I so felt for it!! I couldn’t believe what my eyes were reading..till…TROLLED
Fuck, I almost had a heartattack.
You, bastards. You had me for a minute there.
Don’t even think about replacing him, he is irreplaceable !
You just don’t do face transposition over an Emmy award winning face. That was a little obvious joke.
Really People are coming to a Game of Thrones Article to complain about Nickelback and Big Bang Theory??
what.
Reading this almost gave me a heart attack.
lol. I noticed when they complimented willow that something was up.
Bad joke guys !!! really bad one :D
It was evident that it was a joke when it said “we want to take Tyrion to a more farcical side”. Because we know from season 4 things get really rough and sad for Tyrion and his dark side comes out.
You sick bastard ;)
OMG!!!!!!!!!!! I was so torn! I love Peter Dinklage and wanted to ban GoT because of his reease but I have read all the books and loves the story! Thank God! Hahaha
Thank fuck for that!
I said the exact same thing after Tyrion was attacked and almost killed near the end of season 2
you had me….I was screaming….
This is fucking bullshit! Dinklage is the best part of this show….. this just might ruin it for me…..
I actually hope you DID cast Warwick to play one of the dwarves for Joffery’s wedding. Because “that” would be AWESOME!
I’m reading the book and when I imagine Tyrion, it’s Peter’s face that comes to my mind. I can’t imagine him portrayed by another.
Worst April Fools Joke This Year. At the “we’ll have to not show the dragons” I realized what was up.
lol Bastards. I love Peter I was so sad reading this and got so mad when I read that his face will be digitally replace on the dvds… but that’s when I suspected it was a joke.
if this was true id never watch GoT again lol
Fell for it because in my timezone it’s 2nd April already. I started to wonder though once I got to the point about the effects budget slash to pay Warwicks salary. I’m usually wiser to these sorts of April Fools day pranks. You bastard children.
some things should never be jested at!
I blame Joffrey for this! Only he would be cruel enough to run a joke like this!
I called Bullshit at the title. You can’t replace Dinklage with Willow. He’s the best character on there series.
OMG these posters are jibber jabbering about jibber jaber………
SONOFABITCH…..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So messed up. I was bummed. It’s bad enough some great character and thus actors have to die, to see Peter taken out needlessly got me wound up!
Shame I really enjoy his acting And his story line is riveting
One thing i ask b4 he goes Spend more time in the brothels
that’s just mean!
Thank god its a joke, thought they’d all gone soft in the head…
yeah good joke but if they were ever to replace peter dinklage i would cry he is the perfect lannister
gosh wth, stunned a bit there,
This is horrible. How can you replace him with Warwick? I’m going to quit watching the show. I hope others will too until you have some more sense and keep Peter.
You didn’t read the whole thing did you?
It was an April fool’s joke.
LOL You guys suck! :) I *finally* clued in to something being “wrong” when brought in TBBT. “Uh, wait a minute…when did BIG BANG add a character named ‘Kelly’?” All I could think through most of your “article” was: “OMGawd – how am I gonna break this to my dad?!” (The *HUGE* GoT/Tyrion fan). T’ank g’d eet vazz ‘üst a yoke!
Lol, people really do get militant about the entertainment that they enjoy.
The argument here seems to be “Who is a douchebag?” and I hate to break it to you but it’s most of you.
Game of Thrones is a wonderful show with wonderful actors, doesn’t hold a candle to A Song of Ice and Fire but it’s fantastic anyway.
TBBT is a sitcom, one that I enjoy immensely. As sitcoms go it’s one of the better ones, I’ve only ever watched three of them religiously. (Friends, HIMYM and TBBT)
I loved SoA until the end of season 4.
The Walking Dead was amazing until the latest season which I didn’t enjoy much what with the lack of focus on the main cast (and what’s with Rick & co not taking Woodbury?)
I don’t like Breaking bad, I’ve tried to watch it a few times but I get this feeling I’m about to sit through another Weeds (Regular dude sells drugs, things get crazy, he stops being so regular, things get crazier season by season until it’s so far out of the realms of possibility that I’m just saying “Meh”). That and the manufacture of Meth Amphetamines aren’t a subject that interests me at all.
I love Arrow, but then I love anything DC. (Not Smallville though)
The point I’m making is that it’s a person’s prerogative to pick and choose which TV shows they enjoy. There is no point in hating on folks just because they like something that you do not. But then I suppose that’s religion for you, and what are people doing if not worshiping these video files?
“Heathen! Game of Thrones is the true show, there is no show but Game of Thrones!”
Get over yourselves.
Like allot of other shows 2, but who’s the loser w/ the 3 page essay on why these people suck? Get a life
had me fooled i was fumming !
You can see what he has done to ” an Idiot Abroad ” Carl Pilkington is no longer funny with his dwarf sidekick.
Oh shut the fuck up! all of you, celebrate for the Game has resumed once again! Hooray Game of Thrones :)
LMAO… it was them saying that they would digitally impose Warwick’s face over Peter’s that gave me a clue, I laughed my head off at the idea
HOLY FUCKING SHIT. DONT DO THAT!!!! OH MY GOD I JUST HAD A HEART ATTACK AND ALMOST LEPT OUT THE WINDOW. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU. DONT MESS WITH GAME OF THRONES MAN. GEEZE.
omg. I really frowned.
Whew! So glad its a joke! I was seriously thinking I’d have to stop watching the show now. When the said, “We’ll be seeing a lot less of the dragons and direwolves due to the new budgeting…” I was like, “That’s it! I’m Done!”
I was so unbelievably upset, I didn’t think the show could survive without him! I hate it when movie, or tv series change actors for the characters! It’s awful! Thank god that was a joke!
IT GOT ME OH MY GOD I WAS SO ANGRY for about 10 seconds
OMG, thank god this is just an april fool’s joke, Tyrion is my favourite character and would probably have stopped watching the show if you changed the character and the actor.
I can’t fathom how an off-hand comment expressing mild contempt for a TELEVISION SHOW – not any human individual or group, not a set of beliefs – sparked such a heated and hostile argument! There are the obvious trolls, and some that are probably subtle trolls that I don’t notice, but… people on the internet get so upset so quickly! It escalates and you’re enraged but NOTHING SUBSTANTIAL OCCURRED! I realize I’m not the first person to comment on this phenomenon, but I am rather in an altered state of consciousness where I have the desire to comment. on something on the internet. with a bunch of strangers. thoughts?
(i might be high)
I hate April Fools
got me…would’ve been better if i kept in mind it was april fools day, could’ve spared some tears :’)
You bastards! I nearly died!! I was gonna lose it seriously! HAHA
you dick!
April Fools
Oh I read on and saw that this was an April fools joke, Haha You all got me. Nice one.
an absolute waste of my time – you f’tards ….
Horrible Idea! Keep Peter. Keep The Budget. Keep IT THE WAY IT IS. I believe if you all decide to go through with this, you will regret the decision later on.
this is really really sad.. :(
This gave me heart palpitations!
I knew, Tyrion doesn’t appear in the fourth book so logically he should not appear in the 4th series anyway.
That doesn’t mean anything though, as HBO decided to split book 3 into 2 seasons. Tyrion will be in season 4.
This is the last TV show i actually love ….PLEASE don’t screw it like that!
XD you got me good, well done.
I wish u a purple wedding Lannister X(
IT Amazes me that peoplw will sit at the computer reading 10000’s comments about mindless drivel but mention picking up the GOT books and giving them a read n reread , and they express abuse n shock that some of us still actually read books :D
+1000
Take it easy guys, 50% of the readers didn’t read the update part.
I hate April fool damn lies !!
I was on my way to smash my monitor !
You complete b******s! As if Game of Thrones doesn’t play with my emotions enough (*shakes fist* curse you Mr. Martin!)! grrrrrr.
How dare you! How dare you!
I nearly shit myself! My heartbeat changed!
Jesus Christ. thats NOT funny.
You… bastards!! I had a stroke for this joke!!!
knew right away it was an April fools
best april fool ever, got me
God …you people are terrible …My heart was on the floor till scroll down…
well played HBO, well played
That was horrific reading that article….wowser!
Oh! Good my heart is starting to beat back normally! I hate you ppl! Btw, I thought it was April fools but the seriousness of the article fooled me! ah! feels so much better now!
Arrrrrrghghghghghghg nooooooo, ya got me! Far out brussel sprout, i’m relieved….
Almost gave me a heart attack, until I saw the date.
Thank God it’s a joke, I’d have stopped watching.
Took me ’til the media questions to catch on. Well played, sirs.
I was seriously almost tearing up. THANK GOODNESS this is not real!
Hell, I almost collapsed T_T
luckily I could read till the end
You buggers! Glad I only read this today, so I was only pissed until I scrolled down. Funny though :P
When I saw the headline, I was thinking “WTF?!?”. When I saw the “new direction”, I started looking at the date to see if it was still April 1st. Then when I saw Warwick Davis, I busted out laughing. Then I didn’t read the rest. I’m hoping no one else fell for this.
Wow… I was raging… but figured it was a joke…
That’s not funny…Im here wondering what the hell. And I agree with the reporter that said,“Are you fuc@!n6 serious right now?”..yeah. I would have stop watching immediately. I know a few people who stop because they killed their favorites characters. I would join the club, now I can sleep now.LOST MY DAMN VOICE CAUSE OF THIS…
Oh crap! you had me going…. was just replaying all the episodes in my mind with Warwick Davis thinking… “yep it’s never going to work… and what do you mean Peter Dinklage is not funny enough!!!”…phew can get back to my lunch now! Love your work Peter!
Hey~~~~~~~ I’m pregnant with twins! you can’t make a joke like that! LOL.. you b….ds~~~!
best april fools joke ever…. however I CAN’T imagine ANYONE falling for it… :P… However, i wouldn’t mind Warwick Davis getting a part in the show… he’s my hero :)
just want to let you all know i cried and it’s your fault
better be a joke! this is gonna ruin the show if its not! Sorry love Willow and all but not the right guy in my book! Taking away from the Dragons really?!
dammit! that was cruel!
Omg I was getting soooo upset!!! I was had.
big bang theory..longest running april fools joke in history
Uh isn’t this post about Game of Thrones? Why all the talk about The Big Bang Theory? Some people like it, some people don’t. Doesn’t mean you have poor taste either way, it just means that you have different tastes. Also bashing other shows doesn’t prove that your show is better. Sorry Breaking Bad is amazingly acted, written, and directed. Also just because something makes a lot of money, or gets 20 million viewers does not prove that its great. We need more discussions not arguments. We all have different opinions, let us all just accept that fact and move on with our lives.
hes gone im done with this show peace out
I’d believe it if they got Mini Me to play the part.
Not even cool! You got me because where I am (South Korea), it is no longer April Fools. I thought all the cruel pranks were done for the year…
lol seriously? this was a silly joke. and people are arguing over the quality of the show the Big Bang Theory? lmao wow. If people did not like that show or any other show it would not have been on this long. See in the world of hollywood tv and movies there is this things called FAN BASE. which means a group of a lot of people that like something enough to make it popular. might not be all the people in the world in that group but more than enough, lol i mean who fights over a show seriously lol lamers
Fuck you guys! That was really fucked up. I had linked my GF thinking it was for realz. Guess the final joke’s on her…
I’m going to hurt these damn people!!!! hahahahHAHAHHAA!!!! BUT SERIOUSLY THOUGH, DON’T FUCK WITH MY LANISTERS…
Wow trolls need to be either silenced or neutered…got to stop this annoying hate speech
I nearly threw my computer across the room when I started reading this… I’m waayyyy too gullible! I would be SO angry if this were true! Peter is AMAZING and nobody could replace him! He’s my FAV character!
Willow and big girl boobs? Come on.That was leprechaun milk from the beginning.
I just want to say, after looking through all of the TBBT debate below, that there is no one named Kelly on Big Bang.
man i about to go HAM!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay thanks, I’ll stop crying now…
I was wondering why Peter was leaving because Tyrion was supposed to be more comical only to go on The Big Bang Theory, which is supposed to be funny. Also, why would you want to mask his face in the DVDs??? LOL. I was going to fly off my soapbox if the dragons were really going to be gone because of some actor I’ve never heard of!!! I figured it was all April Fools, but you never know anymore.
I was about to be so pissed, he’s my favorite character. Get rid of that douche Joffrey. And why are none of you actually talking about “Game of Thrones” and fighting over “The Big Bang Theory”? True internet queers.
The first time i read the headline you should “Hear me Roar!” hahahaha
LOL thank god