Yet Gwendoline Christie will have her work cut out for her in this role



Casting continues at full throttle for Season 2 of HBO’s critically acclaimed series “Game of Thrones,” and now another key role has been filled.

Gwendoline Christie has been cast to play “Brienne the Beauty,” a sort of mocking name for a character described in the George R.R. Martin novel series as “large and piggish-looking,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

Brienne has been labeled by the magazine as a “pivotal” role, especially one who is tough with a sword and would love to be knighted, even though she is a woman. She will serve Renly Baratheon, the gay brother of the late king played by Gethin Anthony, who fled the kingdom by the end of Season 1.

Christie is definitely a newcomer, her only other film credit coming as “Classy Shopper 2” in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” She is still quite young, just graduating from drama school in Britain in 2005, but is said to be rather tall — 6-foot-3 to be exact.

Most of her work has been on stage, in productions like “Cymbeline” and “Doctor Faustus.” Although not listed on the Internet Movie Database, Christie also appeared in the BBC production of “The Seven Ages of Britain.”

She joins another recently added castmember, Natalie Dormer, who made a name for herself in “The Tudors.”

“Game of Thrones” is up for a number of awards in the 2011 Airlock Alpha Portal Awards this year, including Best Actor/Television for Sean Bean and Best Actress/Television for Lena Headey. Also nominated are Peter Dinklage for Best Supporting Actor/Television, the episode “Winter Is Coming” for Best Episode/Television, and the show itself for Best Series/Television.

Vote for all of them and others once a day through July 26 by clicking here.

Filming is expected to begin this fall, set for an early 2012 premiere on HBO.