It seems that one of the directors tasked with carrying at least part of Alex Graves’ helming baton over at Game of Thrones has been found. Breaking Bad director and cinematographer Michael Slovis has been nabbed to go behind the lens on two episodes of the HBO series’ upcoming fifth season. As if there weren’t already myriad reasons for you to be excited. Silver linings are everywhere — even in Westeros (I know, can you believe it?)!

The news comes on the heels of Graves’ own admission to Collider that he would be taking a break from his work on Game of Thrones — though fear not, he will return for season six. Considering the fact that the director of 4 of this year’s 10 episodes was tasked with handling the biggest, most shocking moments of the series, it’s no surprise that he needed a bit of a break after all that.

“Certainly I would like to have gone back, they wanted me to come back, but [fellow director] David Nutter and I have a similar thing where when you do too many years in a row, you better be sure that your wife and kids are not really ready for you to do a third one,” Graves explained to Collider. “So I’m taking a break this year and I’m going to have some wonderful home time.”

But the people the show has on board already are far from slouches. Slovis — whose Breaking Bad credits include the episodes “Confessions,” “Live Free or Die,” “Cornered,” and “Kafkaesque” in addition to a ton of impressive work as a cinematographer — is joining a small pool of highly accomplished television auteurs that include Michelle MacLaren, the aforementioned Nutter, Alik Sakharov.

Are you sad to see Graves take a break? Let us know in the comments.

HT: Den of Geek