It’s Tyrion v the aliens and Cersei v the zombies for the Game Of Thrones cast downtime projects

THESE are grim times for Game Of Thrones fans, with season six seemingly an eternity away. But fear not, your favourite Westerosians haven’t been idle.

WINTER might be coming — but it’s taking a bloody long time to get here. It’s been three months since the Season 5 finale and at least another six months before the next season starts: now is the time that Game Of Thrones withdrawal really kicks in.

That’s plenty of time to debate whether Jon Snow has in fact gone to meet his maker (unknown, but Kit Harington was spotted in Belfast, where filming takes place, in July), whether Reek and Sansa survived the jump from the walls of Winterfell (they did) and if the daughter-burning Stannis Baratheon actually lost his head at the hands of the vengeful Brienne of Tarth (he most certainly did). As usual, the storylines are more heavily guarded than the Iron Bank of Bravos and this time around, those smug types who have read the books are just as in the dark as the rest of us. The TV series caught up to the books at the end of last season, so show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are heading into uncharted territory.

So apart from downloading old episodes and scouring the internet for info on new cast members (Ian McShane, Max Von Sydow), and new plot hints (Bran’s back — with Hodor!) it’s grim times for the fans. But fear not, we’re not the only ones who get enforced leave from Westeros. The main cast members only shoot for about half the year from around June to November, leaving them free to pursue other projects in their down time. Here’s what they have been up to:

Dud ... Peter Dinklage (right) finished season five of Game of Thrones in marginally better shape than he started it, but his hiatus project Pixels wasn’t a winner.

PETER DINKLAGE

Tyrion “The Imp” Lannister started season five tumbling out of a crate after being framed for the murder of the odious King Joffrey and finished it ruling Mereen in the absence of the dragon queen Daenerys. He might have used his famed wisdom and cunning a bit better though — Dinklage’s off-season project was the Adam Sandler dud, Pixels. Rocking a mullet as a video-game player who has to save the world, Dinklage’s presence hasn’t saved the movie from some truly awful reviews (one called it “tediously”, “wastefully” and “bafflingly” bad) and an 18% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It opens here on Thursday.

Austen powers ... Lena Headey has a role in the coming movie version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

LENA HEADEY

The cunning, devious and never-beaten queen regent Cersei Lannister was last seen walking buck naked through the streets of Kings Landing being pelted with all manner of excrement as punishment for her many sins. Before she wreaks her inevitable vengeance on those who have crossed her next season, Headey will fulfil a childhood dream by giving voice to Jeopardy Mouse in the BBC reboot of the beloved cartoon, Danger Mouse. Even more awesomely, however, she will reunite with GoT father, Charles Dance (who ignominiously farewelled the series on the dunny, riddled with arrows shot by his hated dwarf son) in the excellently titled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, due for release next February.

MAISIE WILLIAMS

The tomboy princess turned would-be assassin Arya Stark ended the season stricken with blindness by the Faceless Men after getting all stabby and crossing Ser Meryn’s name off her kill list with extreme and bloody prejudice. Williams, though, has already impressed in the coming-of-age drama The Falling, which featured her first (rather disturbing) sex scene. She’s also staking further claims to geek sainthood with an appearance in Season 9 of Doctor Who, due to air on the ABC from September 20. Fellow GoT alumnus Paul Kaye (you know, Thoros the red priest, the one who raised Beric Dondarrion from the dead — keep up people) also appears in the first two episodes of the new season.

X:woman ... Sophie Turner in Barely Lethal, out on DVD this month. You can also find her in the next X-Men instalment, out next May.

SOPHIE TURNER

After leaping from the ramparts of Winterfell to escape the clutches of her black-hearted, rapey husband, Ramsay Bolton, Sansa Stark finished season five on the run. Turner ran straight into superhero-land, following in the steps of her co-star Dinklage to star in the long-running X-Men franchise. She joins the cast as the younger version of Jean Grey (played by Famke Janssen in the original trilogy) in X-Men: Apocalypse due for release next May. If you can’t wait ‘til then, she’s also made the straight-to-DVD thriller Barely Lethal with Hailee Steinfeld, Jessica Alba and Samuel L. Jackson, which is released here on September 16.

NIKOLAJ COSTER-WALDAU

The one-handed master swordsman Jaime Lannister ended the season on a downer — losing yet another child, this time dying in his arms after being poisoned. Danish-born Coster-Waldau has been busy away from Westeros though, he has his native-language thriller A Second Chance releasing at Melbourne’s ACMI on September 24. He also spent time in Australia prior to shooting GoT season 5, playing the deity Horus in the sword-and-sandals epic Gods Of Egypt, which will release worldwide next April.

EMILIA CLARKE

The Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen was arguably the key figure of GoT Season 5, and Emilia Clarke has had the highest profile of her cast mates over the US summer. Her lead role as Sarah O’Connor in the Terminator reboot Genisys racked up a respectable US$410 million at the box office and will be released on DVD/Blu-ray on October 29. At the other end of the spectrum, she’s also made the indie thriller, Voice From the Stone, described as “a Hitchcockian fairy-tale set in 1950s Tuscany”, which has no release date as yet.

NATALIE DORMER

The British actress who plays the scheming and often scantily clad Margaery Tyrell was recently saucing it up on the BBC as 18th century noblewoman Lady Worsley in the period drama The Scandalous Lady. Before she returns to her prison cell in Kings Landing, where she is no doubt plotting revenge on the High Sparrow who put her there, she will also reprise her role as Cressida in the final Hunger Games film, Mockingjay Part II, which is released here on November 19.

Game of Games ... The late — or possibly just seriously delayed — Jon Snow in Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series.

GAME OF THRONES — A TELLTALE GAMES SERIES

If you absolutely, positively need to get back to Westeros, stat, then this video game is your best bet. It tells the story of House Forrester, a noble family from the north of Westeros, loyal to the Starks of Winterfell and features the voices of GoT cast members including Dinklage, Headey, Clarke and Kit Harington. The events in the game series begin towards the end of Season Three of the TV show, and end right before the beginning of Season Five. The retail version is due out later this year.