Neil Marshall, who directed
Blackwater in Season 2,
is back to direct the Season 4 finale.
The final episode of Season 4 will feature the Battle of the Wall, which is an interesting choice. Episode 9, the traditional "Woah!" episode, will probably focus on Tyrion's escape and Tywin's fate. Episode 10 I can imagine focusing almost exclusively on Jon, Mance, Stannis and the battle. This will send Season 4 out on a big high rather than the traditional reflective, slow episode.
However, this does leave the fate of Jon's 'Lord Commander election' subplot up in the air. The election storyline unfolds over multiple Jon and Sam chapters after the battle before ASoS ends. This leaves two possibilities:
1) Jon is elected LC before the battle. This may be more likely, with nine episodes to fill before the battle takes place. We know that Alliser Thorne and Janos Slynt are returning. However, without Stannis's 'approval' it may be less plausible that Jon is elected. Stannis showing up at the Wall before the battle would be lame, IMO, and remove one of the best scenes in the books to date.
2) The story unfolds as it does in the books, but the election storyline is held back to the first 1-2 episodes of Season 5. Whilst possible, it seems to me to be unwise to be devoting chunks of your FIFTH season (out of eight in total) to the third book in the series. It also makes it much less likely they are going to get through AFFC/ADWD in Season 5 (which is essential, IMO, for both pacing and to leave them three seasons to cover the probably-gigantic final two books) if Sam's not leaving for Braavos until Episode 3 or 4 (as he won't go until after the election).
This post has been edited by Werthead: 05 July 2013 - 11:06 AM