Game of Thrones may be about to end production for one last time (with a definitive wrap party in the days to come—get the details below!), but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the frenzied shooting at the King’s Landing set throughout this past week. If you’re keeping score, by this point this climactic battle (and whatever other mayhem is going on there) has become the second largest action shoot in Game of Thrones history, rivalled only by the Moneyglass battle shoot from earlier in the year. And it’s still going, with a record number of extras running around the blazing destruction of the capital!
As usual, A Red Priestess was there to witness the action from afar… but, with this scale of destruction, it was more than close enough to get an idea of what was going on.
Better quality video. I hadn’t seen the small fire on the left #GameOfThrones pic.twitter.com/o5VWOccD06
— A Red Priestess (@a_red_priestess) June 22, 2018
— A Red Priestess (@a_red_priestess) June 25, 2018
According to Los Siete Reinos, this won’t be the typical battle scene of exclusively armed soldiers: this particular scene, which began filming two weeks ago, features more than 600 extras—among them women, which points to civilians being caught in the crossfire. Reportedly, the scene will resume filming this week and will wrap in early July. By the end, at least three weeks of filming will have been allocated for this portion of the larger King’s Landing battle sequence, which has been about a two months shoot, overall!
Speaking of wrapping: though the cast gathered for a party in early June, that was at least a month before the end of production. According to our sources, the true final wrap party will be on June 30th in Belfast, with all former cast members included.
Game of Thrones coming to an end may be quite sad for all of us, but they are, of course, right to celebrate. For nearly a decade, they have produced eight seasons of peak TV; and, with a doubled shooting schedule for little more than half the episodes, it appears the writers, cast, and crew were given the best possible chance to create a worthy end for Game of Thrones. I for one am excited to watch the fruits of this Herculean labor!
Hold the door?
Yes!!!! simple things on a Monday… simple things.
Go, Night King, go!
Happy wedding to Kit and Rose. The photos are lovely
I’m torn between hype and heartbreak. So looking forward to the last season, but also dreading saying goodbye to these characters and this incredibly detailed, richly visualized world.
Does anyone know if Alfie Allen went to Kit and Rose’s wedding? It does not appear in the photos.
That broken dome sure brings to mind the look of the destroyed throne room we saw in Dany’s vision in the House of the Undying.
I think they’ve burnt that dome three times now… Perhaps I should say they’ve lit it on fire on multiple occasions. A Red Priestess has photos from the 22nd with it on fire, new ones from today with it on fire and I believe we had some a couple of weeks ago as well.
There were assumptions that they’d be doing a lot of KL filming once we saw how much work they put into building that set, and how big it is. It looks like they’re getting their moneys worth.
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I hope their final wrap party has great attendance by former cast members and they do more than simply party hard behind closed doors. I’m talking about video, photos and interviews that they can release in one way or another, even if it’s extras on the final box set. It would be fun to hear and see people like Sean and Mark Addy giving their final thoughts. It’s an unrealistic desire, but how fun would it be to get those two to do an episode commentary for S7?
so this means filming will wrap in early July, yes?
Arya,
Alfie is between projects at the moment. He’s been filming a movie in Prague for the past couple weeks and on friday he had to leave for another thing in Japan. Nikolaj was also busy lauching his new charity project in Cannes as of friday and by early sunday he was set to speak in a event at the university of bordeaux. According to Carice’s instagram stories, she was also filming something sunday monday. Not sure about the rest of the cast that wasn’t at the wedding though.
This too is unrealistic and a huge pipe dream, but I would love to watch a strictly GoT Wrap Show with attendees being primarily cast, crew, extras. Yeah, it would be unnecessarily costly and unprecedented, but with how big the cast and crew was, along with how popular it has become I think they could do something pretty entertaining people would watch. It could include WotW type awards voted on by those involved with the show, skits in costume, clips with thoughts from actors, blend in some of Djawadi’s ‘Live Concert Experience,’ etc. In other words, something much bigger and more fun than those things most shows do where a bunch of the cast sit on a stage and talk to a moderator person.
Clob,
The first warp party a few weeks ago was for a (pre-recorded) Conan show special, presumably to be screened next year. So looks like you may get some of what you wish for 😜
It’s beginning to dawn on me that it’s ending (I keep getting these mini-denial breakthroughs it seems). I can’t believe we are facing the end of GOT. I hope the cast and crew party hard; they’ve given us a TV show like none other before and they deserve all the happiness and celebrations they can get. Amazing people – all of them. After production ends, it is going to be a long dark night till it airs next year.
I’m not surprised they’re burning KL. It had to come, ever since Dany’s visions in the HOTU. I guess they will be using extras and not cast members after the wrap party until the shoot ends in July, or I imagine they would have scheduled the party later?
Oooooo, so Conan must know some spoilers… Ply him with drink!
According to the news reports, Alfie Allen was working and didn’t attend the wedding of Kit & Rose. Neither did Lena Heady, Gwendoline Christie, Nicolaj Coster Waldau, or Kristofer Hivju. But Richard Madden, John Bradley, Joe Dempsie, and Eddison Tollett were there along with Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Sophie Turner, Liam Cunningham, and Maisie Williams. I read that there were others who were there, but haven’t yet found anything else.
Something tells me Conan wouldn’t put up much of a fight. 😉
“Catspaw Assassin: perpetuating Irish stereotypes since 1956©”
Roz’s Ghost,
I love how you stated all the actors’ real names but for Ben Compton you used his character name. It’s true. To us, he really is Dolorous Edd.
Clob,
I would love seeing interviews from the cast esp from those early ones we lost in the first few seasons! Their perspective on the later seasons could be rather enlightening.
Btw I wonder if we will have a got70 coming up? Or have we pretty much discussed season 7 to death already?
TheNightQueen,
LOL! And I wasn’t even conscious of it! Just saw more pictures and Conleth Hill was there too.
Anyone else think that Jaime is going to play a big part in setting the capital ablaze?
Tyrion had has turn with Wildfire, Cersei had hers. I think it’s only fitting that Jaime has his chance to bring some light.
port,
Hm.. I don’t see it. Saving the city from wildfire is what gave him the monicker of “Kingslayer” and tarnished his honour in the first place. It would be ironic in a sense, but I don’t see Jamie’s arc going in that direction. I’m not sure what it would really accomplish. It’s far more likely that it would either be the Night King or Cersei, or (more of a long shot in my opinion) Dany.
Arya,
what king hotpie said is not quite right. 🙂 Alfie Allen left Prague (he’s been filming Jojo Rabbit for one week) on Friday before the wedding and he was almost certainly at the wedding although not at the church. He then returned to Prague Sunday evening wearing Japanese socks onboard the plane but not going to Japan. 😛 Today, he’s confirmed to be back in the Czech Republic where he continues working on Taika Waititi’s movie Jojo Rabbit.
But why was he not at the church and attending the happy confetti shower, everyone else from the GoT squad was 🤔🤔🤔?
Do you have a link/source for him being actually there ?
Doesn’t look like David Benioff or D. B. Weiss attended Kit and Rose’s nuptial ceremony,
Maybe they were too busy producing and directing season 8 filming in Belfast.
Clob:
Oh, my thoughts almost exactly! I’m so uber-excited and hyper-emotional for this now…8”’-} Just four days…! ;x;
Haven’t seen any wedding images of Alfie.
I think the movie Carice is working on is The Glass Room.
Can someone please help me with the color change of the Red Keep gate? Why was it first red(dish) and has then been changed to sand stone colored? Did something like this happen in in the show before?
ortrun,
IMO, that’s how they get this naural stone look: they put plaster or daub of different colours one layer upon another and then scratch some bits and pieces off. Or maybe it’s the paint, but anyway it goes in layers and the darkest colours have to go first to get the right look.
Interesting though that the gate of the RK has acquired its final look only recently. It implies that the final action at the gate is still to be filme
Che,
Here’s the thing about torching KL: Everybody, from Olenna Tyrell to the kindly young Lannister soldiers Arya met in S7e1, to Ser Davos, have said that the city smells like sh*t from miles away. Raw sewage and human waste flows down the streets of Flea Bottom. It’s famous for its cuisine of brown slop that’s likely made out of diseased rats, maggots, Lothar, and who knows what else.
Isn’t in time for some urban renewal the old fashioned way? Born down the whole sh*thole and let Night King build overpriced waterfront condos overlooking Blackwater Bay.
So I’m guessing if they’re torching the set (even with controlled fires it’s clear to see that set has been burnt significantly), this means it’s unlikely the set will be opened to the public in the future?
If Dany’s HOTU vision in the show turns out to be prophetic, its probably by chance, because at the time of writing that scene, D&D hadn’t had their meeting with George to learn the ending yet.
BURN THE MALL!!!!
port,
I could definitely see Jamie setting off some wildfire. I know most of us think blowing up King’s Landing would be purely a bad thing, but I could definitely also see this as a last-ditch effort to save everyone from the AotD. If the entire city is infested with them, and there are very few options to save anyone… I can see someone blowing up KL for the greater good. I have mentioned before that I thought Cersei might do it, but instead of trying to rid herself of her enemies, she does it out of self-sacrifice to destroy the AotD and save humanity… mostly because she is trapped anyway and doesn’t really have any other options. But seeing as Cersei doesn’t have a moral bone in her body, I could definitely see Jamie saving humanity by blowing up KL. And it would be quite ironic, of course.
He stayed in the castle’s kennel the whole time.
Maybe it’s Euron, he wants to sack KL for marriage refusal
Maybe Euron,
I’m also expecting Cersei and Euron to get married sometime early on this season.
Jaehaerys,
I like your theory!
I am so looking forward to watching Jaime (as Mo) “ohh wise guy huh?” place eurons pelvis in balerions jaws and sitting on top, euron (as curley) NYAHHAAHHAAHH WOOPWOOP.
HBO have dropped the first teaser trailer!!
_________
You have no idea how much that made me chuckle. I live 1/2 a mile from a mall. Every few years they’ve expanded it, each time bulldozing more of the surrounding woodlands and replacing green space with concrete and asphalt.
Worst of all, as a regional “mega-mall” in an already densely populated residential area, traffic has become unbearable – at all hours. The mall itself is overflowing with shoppers, and its perimeter roads are backed up with people looking in vain for parking spots.
Quoting the Yogi-ism (of the late Yankees catcher Yogi Berra), my family and I joke that the Mall “is so crowded nobody goes there anymore.” If only that were true.
Where’s the Mad King when you need him? A few well-placed caches of wildfire by his pyromancers, and then the order, “Burn the Mall!”, and my quality of life would improve tremendously.
P.S. Now you’ve got me thinking I should print up flyers with a picture of Aerys and the words: “Burn the Mall!”, and post them around town.
⁃ Rant over –
Jon Snowed,
Are you sure it’s not the fan made trailers that were released back in February and May?
It’s on the official HBO twitter, it features the Nights king and has a cryptic message about all good stories starting with a throne.
Expecting watchers to cover it shortly.
Jon Snowed,
Very cool 🙂
There isn’t a new trailer or even really a tease – just this:
https://twitter.com/GameOfThrones/status/1012010165720121344
Clob,
Lol, so it’s basically teasing a tease. I’ll try to contain my excitement.
I love how the twitter comments were saying how Bran is the Night King. Didn’t we already establish that the Night King is some Fist of the First Men dude, and not Bran?
Yes that’s it I know it’s only 16 seconds but it’s the first tease and like past season comes out as filming wraps up.
Now is there a meaning in the text and feature of the Night King or they trolling us? I see people speculating on twitter that Bran will die when the Night King does.
Ten Bears,
Oh doooo it! I would love to see them! (But if someone takes it too literally, I know nothing.)
This is why 90% of my shopping is online.
Unrelated, but I just asked the crow that frequents my yard what he thinks will be the biggest moment in Season 8, and he just said his usual “Hello.” If he has inside info, he’s not telling. I wish he’d let me put that googly eye on his forehead, but nope to that either. I know he’s not a raven, but dammit Norbert.
Pigeon,
He did tell you, only cryptically. The biggest moment in season 8 is going to be the hello between Jon and Arya!
Pigeon,
Well that googly eye comment just made my day 🙂
PS I would’ve put a laughing face there but I only know how to do the smile and the wink lol.
Wolfish,
Then I’ll just leave this moment captured in time: Maisie Williams in her dressing room on her first day on the set as Arya Stark.
http://beta.ems.ladbiblegroup.com/s3/content/6ad982955a45f5b62bce8a3393d0a2fe.png
Drogon and Rhagal join Viscerion and Dragons take over Westeros.
All this tweet tells us is that ‘Stories Like No Other’ is the latest HBO branding campaign. I’ll bet you two castles that we start seeing them apply it to ads for other shows very shortly. I wouldn’t interpret this as a teaser or as having anything whatsoever to do with S8 content.
Stannis the One True Grammarian to HBO’s PR consultants/department:
“Stories like No Other. Never capitalize a preposition or an article in a title or headline, unless it’s the first or last word.”
That bothered me too! I’m glad I’m not the only one. 🙂 Likewise, I often see “of” capitalized in “Game of Thrones”. This is especially irksome when it’s from a professional publication.
Yes, the “Stories Like No Other” thing is HBO-wide; nothing specific to GoT. It was merely a Night King gif, and they also tweeted the same slogan applied to the rest of HBO’s shows.
My word, that would leave Westeros an unsightly place for quite some time. one mil people in kings landing alone. That’s quite some amount of dragon poop. I reckon the aotd would leave them a bit crook in the gut as well. Quite a deal of digestion for just 3 dragons.
The party should be getting started in Belfast…
I wonder if Jack Gleesen is going to show up
Still not clear if this is the Night King or Dany losing the plot, it could even be Cersei going down fighting but that seems the least likely option to me.
I hope it isn’t Wildfire. It’s been used for the Battle of Blackwater and for the Sept of Baelor going boom. Any more use of it would be terribly overdone and feel like lazy writing.