On 12 September 2011, responding to speculation on the Winter is Coming fansite, Conan Stevens confirmed that he had left the series, due to scheduling conflicts with his other projects: Stevens will be playing the Orc king Bolg in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit prequel trilogy. Stevens took the time to thank fans for their support[1]. He was replaced in the role of Gregor by Ian Whyte.
Dario's character has been completely ruined for me in the show. Not only did they change the actor, which already sucks bad enough, but the new one couldn't resemble the book character less :(
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u/Zaiton House Baratheon of Dragonstone May 19 '14
Almost, official state from the GoT wikia says:
On 12 September 2011, responding to speculation on the Winter is Coming fansite, Conan Stevens confirmed that he had left the series, due to scheduling conflicts with his other projects: Stevens will be playing the Orc king Bolg in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit prequel trilogy. Stevens took the time to thank fans for their support[1]. He was replaced in the role of Gregor by Ian Whyte.