Wiki of Westeros

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Wiki of Westeros
This page is about the television series. For other uses, see: Game of Thrones (disambiguation)

"When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die."
―Cersei Lannister[src]

Game of Thrones[2] is the first live-action television series of the World of Westeros. It is the first installment of the franchise overall. It is based on the novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, written by George R.R. Martin, who served as a producer, creative consultant and scriptwriter on the television series. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss created the television series and served as executive producers, showrunners and the main writers.

The series consists of eight fully transmitted seasons, comprising seventy-three episodes in total.[44]

Production of the series is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, mainly at the Paint Hall Studios. It is the largest and most expensive television production ever mounted in Northern Ireland. Filming for the series has also been conducted in Malta, Iceland, Croatia, Morocco, Spain, and the USA.

Premise

Trouble is brewing in Westeros. For the inhabitants of this world, control of the Iron Throne holds the lure of great power. But in a land where seasons can last a lifetime, winter is coming...and beyond the Great Wall that protects them, a forgotten evil has returned. HBO presents this epic series based on the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin.[2]

Overview

The series is set in a world where the seasons can last for years at a time. The main setting is the continent of Westeros, which was home to seven feuding kingdoms until they were united by the Targaryen family using dragons some three centuries ago. The dragons died out and the Targaryen Mad King was unseated in a civil war led by Lords Robert Baratheon, Eddard Stark, Jon Arryn. and Hoster Tully, seventeen years before the series opens. Robert has ruled as King ever since, but when the series opens his rule is increasingly undermined by other factions. At the same time, the only two known surviving Targaryen children, Viserys and Daenerys, having grown to adulthood in exile on the eastern continent of Essos, are now planning to return to Westeros and retake the Iron Throne, and to this end are seeking military alliances with other factions.

As both civil war and an external invasion threaten Westeros, another danger arises in the lands to the far north, beyond the vast Wall that forms the realm's northern border, where a supernatural threat believed to be mythical seems to be stirring after millennia of sleep. The only defense lies with the Night's Watch, an undermanned, underfunded order of soldiers once held in honor but now used as a dumping ground for criminals and exiles.

Seasons

Image Season Episodes Premiere date Finale date
Game of Thrones: Season 1 Game of Thrones: Season 1[45] 10[45] April 17, 2011[3] June 29, 2011[3]
Based on the bestselling fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin (Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author), this sprawling HBO drama series is set in a grounded fantasy world inhabited by ambitious men and women of both honor and ill-repute, much like our own real world.[45]
Game of Thrones: Season 2 Game of Thrones: Season 2[46] 10[46] April 1, 2012[3] June 3, 2012[3]
The second season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph.[46]
Game of Thrones: Season 3 Game of Thrones: Season 3[47] 10[47] March 31, 2013[3] June 9, 2013[3]
The third season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph.[47]
Game of Thrones: Season 4 Game of Thrones: Season 4[48] 10[48] April 6, 2014[3] June 15, 2014[3]
The fourth season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph.[48]
Game of Thrones: Season 5 Game of Thrones: Season 5[49] 10[49] April 12, 2015[3] June 14, 2015[3]
The fifth season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph.[49]
Game of Thrones: Season 6 Game of Thrones: Season 6[50] 10[50] April 24, 2016[3] June 26, 2016[3]
The sixth season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph.[50]
Game of Thrones: Season 7 Game of Thrones: Season 7[51] 7[51] July 16, 2017[3] August 27, 2017[3]
The seventh season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor, conquest and triumph.[51]
Game of Thrones: Season 8 Game of Thrones: Season 8[52] 6[52] April 14, 2019[3] May 19, 2019[3]
The final season of HBO's smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning Best Drama Series Game of Thrones - an epic story of duplicity and treachery, nobility and honor … and clash between the living and the dead.[52]

Great Houses

Westeros is ruled by nine Great Houses, who in turn command hundreds of lesser vassal houses. Houses Stark, Arryn, Tully, Greyjoy, Lannister, Baratheon, Tyrell, Martell and Targaryen are the nine original Great Houses. Each of the Great Houses rules a large region and commands significant armies and power in their own right. A list of the Great Houses and some of their more significant vassals follows:

Cast

House Stark

Main page: House Stark

Retainers at Winterfell

Vassals and allies of House Stark

House Bolton and retainers

Main page: House Bolton

House Lannister

Main page: House Lannister

Vassals and allies of House Lannister

House Baratheon

Main page: House Baratheon

Vassals and allies of House Baratheon

House Arryn and retainers

Main page: House Arryn

House Tyrell

Main page: House Tyrell

Vassals and allies of House Tyrell

House Greyjoy and retainers

Main page: House Greyjoy

House Tully and retainers

Main page: House Tully

House Frey and retainers

Main page: House Frey

House Martell and retainers

Main page: House Martell

In the Riverlands and the Vale

Main page: Riverlands

In King's Landing

In Oldtown

In the Night's Watch

Main page: Night's Watch

Beyond the Wall

In Vaes Dothrak

In the Free Cities

In Qarth

In Slaver's Bay

In Bran's visions

Crew

Producers and staff

Former producers and staff

Writers

In an interview with New York Observer just before Season 5 began, Bryan Cogman explained the writing process for the TV series:

"It’s varied from season to season as we figured out how this thing works. But it’s basically run the same way the past few years. As we’re shooting one season we’re trading emails and/or chatting on set about the broad strokes of the next season: ”Character X” starts at “blank” and we want him or her to end up at “blank.” Then, as we start to approach the end of production, David and Dan, in some years, will assign the various writers a few characters. For instance, when we were working on Season 4, I was assigned Arya and a few others. So I’d go home and work for a few weeks on my “Arya Season 4,” keeping in mind a few scenes we’d already discussed and what chapters and scenarios and themes from the books we might use.
Then, in January, when we’re back in L.A., we’d meet for about two or three weeks, armed with the work we’d all done individually, and throw it all up on the board. You debate, you use some stuff, you throw some stuff out, you think up some new stuff. Sometimes what you end up with is really close to the individual outlines. Sometimes it's very different.
After we map out all the main characters’ individual arcs, using color-coded index cards, we arrange them by episode and get a rough idea of the scene order. From there, we all split up again and each tackle a chunk of the outline—a detailed outline, which sometimes ends up being over a hundred pages. David and Dan polish it, and that’s what we use to script our episodes. I’m generally assigned mid-season episodes—it just seems to work out that way. George wrote a script per season for the first four seasons, but took a break for Season 5 as he’s hard at work on the next book. And while George isn't in the writers room, he reads the outlines and gives his notes.
From there I write my two scripts—it takes me about a month and half to do both—D&D read them, give notes, I do a rewrite, D&D sometimes do a pass on it themselves. And we continue to tinker with all of the scripts through prep and production. But they’re generally camera-ready when we finish them. They have to be, as we have to have all 10 scripts complete well before shooting starts. We shoot all 10 episodes simultaneously, out of order, like a big, 10-hour movie, with two shooting units going at all times, sometimes in different countries."[53]

Cogman went on to explain that, as of Season 5, there were never more than four people in the writers' room at any one time. Martin didn't actually sit in the writers room even when he wrote one episode each year in Seasons 1 to 3 (he didn't move to Northern Ireland to oversee filming for months at a time the way they did), though they sent him their outlines and he would send them back with notes. In Season 1 the only three people sitting in the writers' room and discussing the scripts were Benioff, Weiss, and Cogman. Jane Espenson wrote one episode in Season 1, but as she has explained, they gave her a copy of the book filled with stick-it notes and strict instructions to adapt a certain page range - but she was not actively contributing on the rest of the season as a whole, and left after Season 1. In Season 2 Vanessa Taylor joined the show and became the fourth person (and only woman) sitting in the writer's room discussions. Taylor stayed through Season 3 but did not return for Season 4, and in Season 5 assistant Dave Hill was promoted up to be a new full staff writer, bringing the number of people in the room back up to four. Cogman said that he felt having such a small number of writers helped keep the show more focused.[54]

Directors

Cinematography

Production

Main page: Production timeline
Eddard promo

A HBO promotional image of Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark.

Season2CastEW

An Entertainment Weekly promotional photo of some of the Season 2 cast. From left to right Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Peter Dinklage.

David Benioff was sent a collection of the first four novels in the series (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords and A Feast for Crows) by George R.R. Martin's agent. Initially sceptical of the fantasy genre, Benioff became a big fan of the books and invited his friend D.B. Weiss to develop the project with him for a screen adaptation. They initially considered a movie adaption, but realized this would mean losing most of the plot and characters from the books. Instead, they began working on an adaptation for television. They met with George R.R. Martin and spent several hours discussing the project. Martin was impressed with their enthusiasm and that they had already worked out the resolutions to several key mysteries in the books. He agreed with them that the series was a good fit for the cable company HBO, which Martin was already a big fan of.

HBO agreed to option the project in 2007 and active development of a pilot script began. However, this was delayed by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike. In October 2008 HBO exercised its option to buy the rights to the series and ordered a pilot a few weeks later. Casting announcements were made throughout 2009, with Peter Dinklage the first actor formally announced for the series. The pilot was filmed in Northern Ireland and Morocco in October and November 2009.

HBO officially greenlit the series on 2 March 2010. Filming of Season 1 began on 23 July, with Malta replacing Morocco for overseas filming. Several actors from the pilot were recast, requiring the re-filming of most of the first episode. The season wrapped filming on 15 December. HBO later confirmed that the first season had a budget of $60 million. The first season aired on HBO on 17 April-19 June 2011, garnering critical acclaim and steadily rising ratings. HBO confirmed after the transmission of the first episode that a second season had been commissioned.

Production of Season 2 began on 25 July 2011 and wrapped on 12 December. Malta was dropped as a filming location, replaced by Croatia, while additional filming took place in Iceland. The budget for Season 2 was 15% higher than Season 1, necessitated by the addition more ambitious effects sequences and the use of CGI creatures such as direwolves and dragons. The second season aired from 1 April to 3 June 2012, garnering additional critical acclaim and increased ratings. By the end of the second season, the show had become the third-most-successful series in HBO's history, behind only The Sopranos and True Blood. In addition, the DVD and Blu-ray set of Season 1 was released just prior to transmission of Season 2 and immediately became HBO's fastest-selling media release in its history.

Production of Season 3 began on 10 July 2012 and wrapped on 24 November. Morocco was added to the filming roster alongside Croatia, Iceland and Northern Ireland, with the complexities of filming requiring the addition of a third filming unit to the existing two. An additional scene was shot in Los Angeles for safety reasons, meaning that Season 3 was filmed in five separate countries on three continents. The season aired from 31 March to 2 June 2013. The penultimate episode The Rains of Castamere won widespread critical acclaim for its shock twist ending. By the end of the season the show had supplanted True Blood as the second-most successful HBO show in the United States and The Sopranos as its most successful series worldwide.

Production of Season 4 began on 8 July 2013 and concluded on 21 November. Production was more focused this season, with only two units used and filming restricted to Northern Ireland, Iceland and Croatia. This was to allow more of the budget to be concentrated on several major action and effects sequences late in the season.

Production of Season 5 ran from 18 July 2014 to 12 December. Production was focused once more, with two units filming in Northern Ireland, Croatia and Spain, with Spain being a new addition to the show's shooting countries.

Production of Season 6 ran from mid-July 2015 to 17 December. Filming took place in Northern Ireland and Spain, while the production only returned to Croatia for a brief shoot, as they used several locations in Spain as exterior sets for King's Landing, Braavos and Meereen.

Production of Season 7 ran from 31 August 2016 to February 2017, which was later than past seasons, mainly due to the desire to accurately depict the winter that now grips Westeros, and will be shortened to seven episodes, due to the smaller amount of story content remaining, as well as the increased production values and time required to film episodes involving larger set pieces. Filming took place in Northern Ireland, Spain, Iceland and, once again briefly, Croatia.

Adaptation process and catching up with the books

Seasons 1-4: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords

As of 2016, five books have been published in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, and author George R.R. Martin has predicted that there will be two more (though he is struggling not to let the final book run long, in which case it would have to be split, for a total of eight books).

The third novel, A Storm of Swords, was so long that it pushed the limits of how large a published book could physically be without pages falling out. Because the third novel was so long, the production team realized it would be impossible to condense it all into a single season, so the decision was made to adapt its contents across two seasons. While Season 3 ends with the Red Wedding, this actually happened in the middle of the third novel (similar to how Renly Baratheon suddenly died in the middle of Season 2). Jon Snow returned to Castle Black by the middle of the third novel. Daenerys Targaryen had not yet reached Meereen by the middle of the third novel. A few characters did advance further than this in Season 3, i.e. Bran Stark actually passed north of the Wall at the end of the third novel (he had so few chapters in the entire book that the TV producers didn't want to space it out for two full seasons). By the end of the fourth season, most of the characters had completed their story from the third novel.

Season 5 and 6: Intercutting A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons

What was originally planned as the fourth novel was even longer than the third novel, so Martin split it into two novels: A Feast for Crows (the fourth book) and A Dance with Dragons (the fifth book). The fourth and fifth books occur during a simultaneous timeframe: all of the chapters set in the Seven Kingdoms were moved to the fourth book, while all chapters set outside of the Seven Kingdoms (at the Wall or across the Narrow Sea in Essos) were moved to the fifth book. Though of course, despite splitting them because as one book they would have been longer than the third novel, Martin kept making additions to the fourth and fifth novels during the writing process, so both are nearly as long as the third novel.

It would be odd to spend an entire season with one set of characters while the rest do not appear, then reverse this in the subsequent season. So Season 5 chronologically presented events in the order that they happened. This is comparable to how J.R.R. Tolkien's The Two Towers actually consisted of two halves: the first half entirely follows Aragorn since the end of the first novel, then the second half backs up in time to follow only Frodo's perspective, but during the same timeframe since the end of the first novel. Peter Jackson's movie adaptation, however, chose to simply intercut between the two storylines to show events in the chronological order in which they occurred. Thus "Season 5" consisted of the majority of the material from A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons.

Seasons 7 and 8: Beyond the books and ending

Given that there are currently five novels (with the third split into two seasons), but given the fact that the majority of the fourth and fifth novels have been adapted in Seasons 5 and 6, there was only a very limited amount of material left to be adapted. Even so, Martin has told producers Benioff & Weiss the general outline of how the final two books are going to progress (so if a bolt of lightning strikes Martin, they'd still be able to finish according to Martin's general plan).

As a result, the total amount of seasons remained unclear for quite some time. During Season 3, in an interview with Mother Jones magazine, Benioff & Weiss said that they thought the TV series might run as many as eight seasons, for a total of 80 episodes, though they were unsure:

Mother Jones: "So I gather that Game of Thrones could last eight or nine seasons. Does that mean putting novel writing on hold for a decade?
Benioff & Weiss: "Yes, if we live that long and HBO keeps wanting to make the show. We have the opportunity here to tell a coherent story that lasts for 80 hours. And while a canvas of that size presents all sorts of storytelling problems, it also allows us to spend more time with these characters we love than we'll ever get again.[55]

Soon before Season 4 began, however, in early March 2014 executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss made several comments that they actually felt Season 4 was the "midway point" of the TV series, which would probably last seven seasons. On March 11, 2014, they said in Entertainment Weekly:

"It feels like this is the midpoint for us...If we’re going to go seven seasons, which is the plan, Season 4 is right down the middle, the pivot point...I would say it's the goal we've had from the beginning...It was our unstated goal, because to start on a show and say your goal is seven seasons is the height of lunacy. Once we got to the point where we felt like we're going to be able to tell this tale to its conclusion, that became [an even clearer] goal. Seven gods, seven kingdoms, seven seasons. It feels right to us.”[56]

The repeated statements Benioff and Weiss made throughout Season 4 that they "always" intended for there to be seven seasons simply contradict previous statements they made in formal print interviews, such as with Mother Jones in 2013 (though plans can and do change over many years).

Benioff & Weiss, as well as George R.R. Martin himself, then provided comments for the April 2014 issue of Vanity Fair (which was released about two weeks after Benioff and Weiss said in Entertainment Weekly that there might be only seven seasons). Contradicting his statements made at the same time in EW that "we're going for seven seasons, it's been our goal since the beginning", Benioff instead repeated that the production team wasn't sure if the TV series would last "seven or eight" seasons.

"If we're a series and we're four seasons, five seasons in, and it's indefinite as to how long it's gonna go, then I don't think there’s as much pressure as far as, the end is coming, the end is nigh. So, for us, whether it ends up being seven or eight, it's right around there. I think we've always felt — we just completed the fourth season — this is the midpoint. And we're coming around the bend right now."[57]

D.B. Weiss also said in Vanity Fair, after they had just finished Season 4 and were about to start writing Season 5, that they saw the show as running up to eight seasons:

"We know there’s an end somewhere in the seven-or-eight season zone. It’s not something that goes ten, eleven — it doesn't just keep on going because it can. I think the desire to milk more out of it is what would eventually kill it, if we gave in to that.[58]

HBO programming president Michael Lombardo said that the network would eagerly accept the TV series going on for eight to ten seasons, but only if writers Benioff and Weiss felt it served the story instead of dragging it out (though of course, the TV series has not been "padding" the massive novels series, but omitting many subplots for time). Lombardo said:

"We'll have an honest conversation that explores all possible avenues. If they [Benioff and Weiss] weren't comfortable going beyond seven seasons, I trust them implicitly and trust that's the right decision—as horrifying as that is to me. What I'm not going to do is have a show continue past where the creators believe where they feel they've finished with the story.[59]

On July 30, 2015, HBO programming president Michael Lombardo announced that the TV series will last at least eight seasons, not only seven. Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour, Lombardo said that while Season 7 was not yet technically ordered, HBO and the writing team felt that there were about two more seasons worth of story (matching the expectation that it is based on a series of seven novels, one of which was so large it was split and adapted as two TV seasons). In contrast with Benioff and Weiss's frequent declarations since Season 4 that they had "always" intended for there to be seven TV seasons (though they had repeatedly said "seven or eight" before Season 4), Lombardo said that "Seven-seasons-and-out has never been the [internal] conversation" between the production team and HBO. Lombardo said,

"The question is: How much beyond seven are we going to do? Obviously we’re shooting six now, hopefully discussing seven. [Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are] feel like there’s two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds, but that’s what we’re looking at right now."[60]

Lombardo also directly reiterated that HBO is interested in making prequel projects, adapted from Martin's other stories set in Westeros, i.e. the Dunk & Egg novellas - but he also reiterated that they aren't going to have any serious negotiations about prequel projects until after the main TV series is over, due to the massive amount of work involved.

On April 14, 2016, David Benioff confirmed they had 13 episodes left after season six. "We’re heading into the final lap," he said. "That's the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but that's what we're looking at." Presumably, season seven would have that number of episodes, and season eight would be six episodes. Weiss and Benioff said they were unable continuing to produce ten episodes of the show in the previous 12 to 14-month time frame. "It's crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule," Weiss said.[61] Martin declined writing an episode for Season 5 and beyond to focus on writing The Winds of Winter, and in March 2015 canceled all of his future convention appearances to focus on writing it. Nevertheless, the final seasons of the TV series were released before the final two novels, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.[62]

Casting

With 250 speaking roles, almost 90 of them named, the cast was the largest ever assembled for the debut season of a HBO project. The cast grew even larger in the second and third seasons.

The cast includes Sean Bean as Lord Eddard Stark, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon, Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen, Richard Madden as Robb Stark, Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister, Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish, Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy, Conleth Hill as Varys, Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane, Jerome Flynn as Bronn, John Bradley as Samwell Tarly, Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont, James Cosmo as Jeor Mormont, Joe Dempsie as Gendry, Sibel Kekilli as Shae and Jason Momoa as Drogo. The cast is also notable for including a number of teenage and child actors in prominent roles: Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark, Art Parkinson as Rickon Stark, and Jack Gleeson as Joffrey Baratheon.

Jennifer Ehle was initially cast as Catelyn Stark, but after filming the pilot HBO decided to recast the role with Michelle Fairley. No further details have been given for the reason behind this decision, except that it was amicable. In a similar manner, Tamzin Merchant was initially cast as Daenerys Targaryen, but after filming the pilot she was replaced by newcomer Emilia Clarke.

Several prominent recurring cast members introduced in first season were Julian Glover as Grand Maester Pycelle, Donald Sumpter as Maester Luwin, Gethin Anthony as Renly Baratheon, Ian Gelder as Kevan Lannister, Eugene Simon as Lancel Lannister, Finn Jones as Loras Tyrell, Kate Dickie as Lysa Arryn, Lino Facioli as Robin Arryn, Owen Teale as Alliser Thorne, Dominic Carter as Janos Slynt, Ian McElhinney as Barristan Selmy, David Bradley as Walder Frey, Joseph Mawle as Benjen Stark, Francis Magee as Yoren, Natalia Tena as Osha, Kristian Nairn as Hodor, Mark Stanley as Grenn, Josef Altin as Pypar and Peter Vaughan as Maester Aemon.

The second season marked the introduction of many new cast members, including Stephen Dillane as Lord Stannis Baratheon, Carice van Houten as Melisandre, Liam Cunningham as Davos Seaworth, Natalie Dormer as Margaery Tyrell, Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth, Patrick Malahide as Balon Greyjoy, Gemma Whelan as Yara Greyjoy, Michael McElhatton as Roose Bolton, Rose Leslie as Ygritte, Hannah Murray as Gilly, Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H'ghar, Daniel Portman as Podrick Payne and Ben Crompton as Eddison Tollett.

For the third season, the cast was further swelled with additions, including Diana Rigg as Olenna Tyrell, Iwan Rheon as Ramsay Snow, Ciarán Hinds as Mance Rayder, Kristofer Hivju as Tormund, Anton Lesser as Qyburn, Nathalie Emmanuel as Missandei, Jacob Anderson as Grey Worm, Tara Fitzgerald as Selyse Baratheon, Kerry Ingram as Shireen Baratheon, Clive Russell as Brynden Tully, Tobias Menzies as Edmure Tully, Richard Dormer as Beric Dondarrion, Paul Kaye as Thoros of Myr, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Ellie Kendrick as Jojen and Meera Reed.

For the fourth season, only a few new cast members were added, including Pedro Pascal as Oberyn Martell, Indira Varma as Ellaria Sand, Michiel Huisman as Daario Naharis, Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Mace Tyrell, Dean-Charles Chapman as Tommen Baratheon, Rupert Vansittart as Yohn Royce and Mark Gatiss as Tycho Nestoris.

For the fifth season, many new cast members were introduced, including Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow, Faye Marsay as the Waif, Alexander Siddig as Doran Martell, DeObia Oparei as Areo Hotah and Keisha Castle-Hughes, Jessica Henwick and Rosabell Laurenti Sellers as the Sand Snakes: Obara, Nymeria and Tyene Sand.

For the sixth season, a small number of new cast members were added, including Max von Sydow as the Three-Eyed Raven, Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy, Michael Feast as Aeron Greyjoy, James Faulkner as Randyll Tarly, Bella Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont and Tim McInnerny as Robett Glover.

For the seventh season, Jim Broadbent was cast as Archmaester Ebrose, and for the eighth season, Marc Rissmann was cast as Harry Strickland.

Filming locations

Main page: Filming locations (Game of Thrones)
  • Northern Ireland (The Paint Hall Studios in Belfast was used for all primary interior sets.)
  • Malta (Season 1)
  • Croatia (Seasons 2-8)
  • Iceland (Seasons 2-4, 7-8)[63]
  • Morocco (Season 3)
  • United States (Seasons 3 and 7)
  • Spain (Seasons 5-8)
  • Canada (Season 5)[64]

Filming dates

  • The pilot was originally expected to be filmed between 12 October and 6 November 2009, but there was a two-week delay in pre-production. A read-through of the script was held on 12 October 2009. Production and on-location rehearsals began on 24 October. Filming commenced on 26 October and concluded on 19 November.
  • Scenes at Doune Castle were filmed on 26–27 October 2009 and are believed to include the Winterfell feast to celebrate King Robert's visit. Some filming was also done in the courtyard.
  • The prologue was filmed on 29 October 2009 at Tollymore Forest Park.
  • Filming at Cairncastle took place on 2 November 2009, including the scene of Gared's execution and finding the dead direwolf in the snow.
  • Filming of the scene between Ros, Tyrion and Jaime in King's Landing was filmed on or prior to 3 November 2009, possibly at the Paint Hall studios.
  • Filming at Castle Ward took place on 5 November 2009, including the scenes of Tommen and Bran sparring and Sandor and Joffrey insulting Rodrik and Robb.
  • The UK filming bloc was expected to last for 18 days, suggesting that it would finish around 12 November 2009. George R.R. Martin confirmed on his blog that after this date production would move to Morocco for the remainder of the shoot.
  • Daenerys and Khal Drogo's wedding was filmed on 16 November 2009.
  • Production of the rest of Season 1, including reshoots on the pilot, commenced on 23 July 2010 and ran through 18 December 2010. Filming took place in Northern Ireland and Malta.
  • Production of Season 2 ran from 25 July 2011 to 12 December 2011. Filming took place in Northern Ireland, Iceland and Croatia (replacing Malta).
  • Production of Season 3 ran from 10 July to 24 November 2012, with Morocco added to the filming roster. An additional scene was also shot in Los Angeles, meaning that filming for Season 3 took place in five countries and on three continents.
  • Production of Season 4 ran from 8 July to 21 November 2013. Filming took place in Northern Ireland, Iceland and Croatia, with Morocco dropped. Filming in Iceland was expanded to encompass locations in the south of Westeros as well as beyond the Wall, and took place earlier in the schedule to allow for more filming time.
  • Production of Season 5 ran from 18 July to 12 December 2014, with Spain added to the filming roster. Filming also took place in Northern Ireland and Croatia, with Iceland dropped. Additional shooting took place in Canada for the scenes involving the direwolf Ghost.
  • Production of Season 6 ran from mid-July to mid-December 2015. Filming took place in Northern Ireland and Spain, with minor additional filming taking place in Croatia.
  • Production of Season 7 ran from 31 August 2016 to February 2017. Filming took place in Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia and Iceland, which returns as a shooting location.
  • Production of Season 8 ran from 23 October 2017 to 6 July 2018. Filming took place in Northern Ireland, Spain, Croatia and Iceland.

Gallery

Videos

Behind the scenes

Best Moments

Trailers

Iron Anniversary

A Decade of Game of Thrones

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 Game of Thrones: Season 1, Episode 1: "Winter Is Coming" (2011).
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Notes

  1. In "You Win or You Die," Jorah Mormont receives a pardon stating that the current year is 298.
  2. In "Winter Is Coming," which takes place in 298 AC, Sansa Stark tells Cersei Lannister that she is 13 years old and Bran Stark tells Jaime Lannister that he is 10 years old. Arya Stark was born between Sansa and Bran, making her either 11 or 12 in Season 1. The rest of the Stark children have been aged up by 2 years from their book ages, so it can be assumed that she is 11 in Season 1. Arya is 18 in Season 8 according to HBO, which means at least 7 years occur in the span of the series; therefore, each season of Game of Thrones must roughly correspond to a year in-universe, placing the events of Season 8 in 305 AC.
  3. In "The Wars To Come," Cersei Lannister states that she is promised to Rhaegar Targaryen. Rhaegar is married to Elia Martell by 278 AC; therefore, Cersei must have met Maggy prior to 278 AC.
  4. In "The Kingsroad," which takes place in 298 AC, Catelyn Stark states that Eddard Stark went to war with Robert Baratheon "17 years ago;" therefore, Robert's Rebellion occurred in 281 AC.

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