Why Did Game of Thrones Recast the Mountain Not Once but Twice?
Here's how so many actors ended up portraying the evil giant.
Game of Thrones, one of the most popular shows of the past decade, faced significant challenges in its early seasons. Fans complained about cheap-looking sets and frequent recasting of supporting actors. The show's creators strived to make it as great as possible by selecting the right actors for each part.
However, fans were somewhat disappointed by the fact that Gregor Clegane, also known as The Mountain, was played by three different actors.
In the show's first season, actor and wrestler Conan Stevens portrayed Gregor in just two episodes.
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The way the plot was unfolding, it was evident that his character would be getting more attention in subsequent seasons. However, Conan wanted to get famous fast, so he left Game of Thrones after the first season and signed on to play the Orc King in The Hobbit trilogy.
HBO had no difficulty replacing him: they promptly cast Prometheus' Ian Whyte as The Mountain.
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The gifted actor had already appeared in the first season of Game of Thrones as one of the White Walkers, so he took being cast as Gregor in stride. However, after a brief stint as The Mountain, Whyte was once again relegated to being an extra on the show, playing giants and sundry other background characters.
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson then took on the role of The Mountain in Season 4, appearing in all the most memorable episodes, including The Mountain's duel with Oberyn Martell and his final battle with his brother The Hound.
Fans clearly favoured Björnsson's portrayal of The Mountain over the previous two actors. And yet, most fans agree that The Mountain would have been a much better character if Conan had decided to stick with Game of Thrones after the first season: having the same actor play Gregor in all his appearances would have resulted in a far more consistent portrayal, allowing the character to really come into his own.
It seems, however, that HBO producers didn’t view Gregor as an important character and didn’t believe that having several different actors play him would disrupt the show’s continuity, thus actors came and went, but the Mountain remained.