Full disclosure: I’ve been to Iceland. It is as gorgeous and as cold and as foreign as you think it is. Desolate and beautiful in places, lush and beautiful in others.

I cannot imagine a better location for Beyond the Wall than Iceland.

I love the idea that all the frost and icicles we’ll see starting March 31 are real. It takes integrity and a little insanity to say “Yes, let’s go shoot in this blizzard beaten landscape with 5 hours of day light, rather than sit in our warm, cozy studios and make pretty pictures on the computer.” And despite all those amazing clips of what they DO do with CGI on the show, every so often having this bit of reality makes such a difference.

Even though this was a very short behind-the-scenes peek, we are getting some good shot of characters, especially Mance Rayder played by Ciarán Hinds. And it’s nice to see Gareth Keenan alive and well.

Julius Cesar himself