george r.r. martin

Nothing is certain except death and taxes, as the old saying goes. So there is a chance that 'Game of Thrones' won't run for years on HBO. But based on what the network's executives said Thursday to the media at the Television Critics Association press tour, 'GoT' fans shouldn't be too worried about the show having a short life span.

HBO executive Richard Plepler put it plainly: "We told George we would go as long as he kept writing."

George is George R.R. Martin, the author of the books on which the TV show is based. After the remarks from Plepler and fellow HBO executive Michael Lombardo below, I've got a long excerpt from an interview I did with Martin at Comic-Con last week. But first, there's more on what the executives said about 'Game of Thrones' future at TCA press tour.

The executives' positive statements are good news for fans of 'Game of Thrones,' but at the Thursday HBO session, critic Ellen Gray raised the specter of 'Deadwood,' a period piece with a fervent following that ended in a sudden and mystifying way well before fans (and possibly even creator David Milch) were ready to let it go.

We may have been forced to say goodbye to the strong Sarah Connor when FOX pulled the plug on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But it looks like we won't have to wait long before the actress who played her takes on another powerful role. Lena Headey has joined the cast of A Game of Thrones as Queen Cersai of House Lannister.

I'll not get into the specifics of her character arc in the series, as the series will likely deviate from it anyway. But I can tell you that she is a beautiful, ambitious and powerful woman as the saga unfolds. It's a role that Lena Headey has proven herself more than capable of handling.

She's joining an already impressive and massive cast for the ambitious fantasy series. Certainly her ties to both 300 and T:TSCC might help raise awareness of this project in just the fan communities it needs. I'm looking for this to be the more sophisticated big brother of Legend of the Seeker, which tackles another massive book series.