As I've mentioned before, one of the (many) great things about Game of Thrones (based on George R. R. Martin's epic, A Song of Ice and Fire) is how deeply political it is, and chock full of complex and self-motivated individuals within various "houses" at that.
As in the novels, which the television series seems to be following thus far (I wonder if that will change as we hit the massive scale of the fourth and fifth books, but we can look at that another time), the second edition focuses on the upheaval and civil war spawned by the death of King Robert Baratheon (Mary Addy) and the revelation that he may not have produced any "trueborn heirs." Of course, we know that there's a wicked scandal at the heart of the series, and one that drives many of its major events: that Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) have been carrying on an incestuous relationship that did indeed produce the children in line to the throne.
Enter Stannis Baratheon, to be played by Stephen Dilliane, a brother to Robert we did not meet but only heard of during Season One (another brother, Renly, a charismatic man with his own secrets and lover, was well portrayed Gethin Anthony during the first season… I told you it gets complicated!). Stannis is ice to Robert's earthiness and Renly's sun, a cold and remote man who seeks to claim the Iron Throne as much because it follows the letter of the law as he sees it as anything else, I'd wager.
Game of Thrones Season Two is set to debut on April 15th, 2012 on HBO, and I for one can't freaking wait. Promotion is just starting to kick off, and this teaser trailer alone is well enough to whet our appetites:
And everything I've mentioned touches on only but a slice of the story. There will be much doings up at the Wall (and beyond), across the Narrow Sea for Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) as she comes into her own, and back in Westeros we'll want to see as much of the doings and machinations of Tyrion, the Starks, Jon Snow, Samwell, Theon (much to come from his house!), Varys, Littlefinger, Bron, Hodor, and on and on.
What are you looking forward to seeing in Season Two?
There are some rumors flying around that HBO wants to renew and subsequently film the show's third and fourth seasons back-to-back in order to cover Storm of Swords (the third novel) adequately. http://www.tv.com/news/news-briefs-hbo-is-considering-adding-two-more-seasons-of-game-of-thrones-27279/
I still find myself waking up with the Game of Thrones opening theme stuck in my head - suffice to say I wants it bad!
Well, I think the "massive scale" really starts with the third book, A Storm of Swords. That's the one that George R.R. Martin keeps saying can't be fit into just one season. I think he's right, at least if it's the current 10-episode seasons. They might be able to do it in like a 13-episode season. At any rate, it does seem like the show runners plan to split the book in two. As for the fourth and fifth books, I'm not so sure. First of all, the two books take place simultaneously (well, for the most part--the last part of the fifth book takes place immediately after the fourth book), and the fourth book (unquestionably the weakest effort of the series) doesn't have that much going on. Martin made the idiotic decision to split the books geographically, so several of the most important characters in the series are entirely absent. I feel like they could knock that out in about five or six episodes. And the fifth book has a whole lot of talking. There's some good action too, but there's a lot that could be cut without losing much. Between the two, I would think that it would be possible to do the two combined books in two seasons. If I had to guess, I think that Seasons 3 and 4 will be on A Storm of Swords (with some possibility of moving a little forward, which has already happened--the last scene with Arya in Season 1 is from A Clash of Kings), while Seasons 5 and 6 will encompass everything in A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. Beyond that, it's impossible to say, though I would guess that both of the last two books will be huge in scale, as it's going to take a lot of pages to complete the story.
John, you're absolutely right about the epicness. In fact, the story seems to scale further with each subsequent novel, as more lands and characters who are mentioned but seen are suddenly unlocked and come alive.
Mark, splitting the third book over two seasons makes perfect sense for the "scale" reason and also because that gives Martin more time to finish the novels. It's also good news all round as it means we have great odds at having many seasons to look forward to in the future !