'Game of Thrones' Season 5 Spoilers, Plot News: Fans Unhappy With Sand Snakes Casting
"Game of Thrones" Season 5 opens next month introducing a new set of characters from author George R.R. Martin's "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons," but some of the show's viewers have expressed dissatisfaction with the Sand Snakes.
When "Game of Thrones" Season 5 premieres on April 12 this year, HBO will be introducing a total of eight new characters, including the Sand Snakes, the late Prince Oberyn "Red Viper" Martell's illegitimate daughters raring for revenge on their father's killer.
However, fans of the show have expressed their displeasure with the choice of cast for the Sand Snakes after initial footage was shown of the three women playing Obara Sand (Academy Award winner, Keisha Castle-Hughes), Nymeria Sand ("Silk" actress, Jessica Henwick), and Tyene Sand ("Balancing Act" star, Rosabell Laurenti Sellers), three of the eight illegitimate daughters of Oberyn Martell.
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Some of the naysayers were expecting the Red Viper's daughters to display darker skin in keeping with descriptions of the Dornish people as found in the book. This contention brings back a similar protest over Chilean Pedro Pascal portraying Prince Oberyn Martell, a casting move author George R.R. Martin himself defended.
With Castle-Hughes being half Maori, Sellers partly Italian, and Henwick half Singaporean-Chinese, the casting conflict comes from the Sand Snakes being too white to pass as members of a desert-dwelling people.
Another controversy allegedly involves protests over Obara Sand's nipple armor, a mistake which costume designers blamed on the structured molding they used. Still, Obara's armor will still be seen come Season 5.
Another inconsistency in the show fans of the fantasy epic novels are complaining about is the Sand Snakes portrayal in the upcoming season as Oberyn and Ellaria Sand's daughters, when the book describes them as begotten from different birth mothers.
