Earlier today we brought you Karakter‘s concept art for season seven, and now we continue with Kieran Belshaw‘s equally impressive work. His concept art shows Dragonstone in even more detail, the quest beyond the Wall, the Dragonpit and more!
As we said in the previous concept art showcase, the art designers were very careful to plan everything in Dragonstone in advance and make it so the locations, sets, and the VFX castle always were geographically coherent, in a way most earlier Game of Thrones locations honestly aren’t. To that end, the entire island was designed from the ground-up, as we can see in these pieces by Belshaw, particularly the map:
In the script for The Spoils of War, the ending is less abrupt than in the final product. As Belshaw tells it, “when Jamie plunges into the water he witnesses Lannister soldiers weighted down by their armour begging for help. Unfortunately although segments of this were filmed, it didn’t make the final edit.” That is unfortunate, because if the filmed version was half as beautiful as this concept piece I would love to have seen it:
There is more, of course, including the quest beyond the Wall and the Dragonpit:
The production design showcased in these pieces were nominated by the Art Directors Guild Awards last week and, judging by what we see here, they may well win! Let’s cross our fingers for Belshaw and the many others who made this happen.
If his work looks familiar, that’s because we showed you his season six concept art. He also did art for season five. You can see all of it, including more for season seven, here!
Hodor!
Derp!
Love the Dragonpit one with Drogon
“Dragon Landing Area”. 🐲Love it!….. The Dragonstone Area 51⚛️☣️☢️🚫 imagining a Dothraki standing on a cliff edge, like flight control on a Navy carrier (complete with Top Gun soundtrack) , guiding in ol’ Drogon through some heavy fog with a pair of lit torches.
“in the script for The Spoils of War, the ending is less abrupt than in the final product. As Belshaw tells it, “when Jamie plunges into the water he witnesses Lannister soldiers weighted down by their armour begging for help. Unfortunately although segments of this were filmed, it didn’t make the final edit.” That is unfortunate, because if the filmed version was half as beautiful as this concept piece I would love to have seen it.,,”
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• I wonder why it didn’t make the final edit ? It would’ve been nightmarish as hell.
• Jaime was weighted down by his armour too, and only had one hand for swimming. So how did he not drown? And how did Bronn manage to drag him under or through the water so far away and out of reach of Dany & the Dothraki?
Ten Bears,
shhh… if you haven’t gotten the message yet from ‘the fans’ – it is a fantasy show with dragons and magic, you are supposed to just go along and not think too hard about it … yeah, it made for an exciting moment and just remember how cool the dragons look in battle! that should help you lower your logic and reasoning when watching GOT 🙂
I’d love to know, too, Ten Bears. I’m sure the original script had a better explanation than we got.
I loved the art for this drowning scene and for the Magnificent Seven! Both are just gorgeous. And I’m loving the details of Dragonstone I never realized existed.
Ten Bears,
Originally, Jaime and Bronn got away from Drogon not by their own strength but by the river’s strong current. That’s why they never truly drowned, too. Oh, and Jaime’s final charge against Drogon took place on a bridge, not by the river bank, which would make it so the logistics of Bronn’s push make more sense. I guess the constraints of a real location (it was filmed by a lake, not a river) made all of this pretty much impossible. This may be a very expensive show, but there are still very real production constraints. People do forget that.
Of course, what we should judge is the final product. But our criticism shouldn’t involve demeaning the writers’ intelligence. They think this stuff through, people. It just doesn’t always come out as they wish it did.
If you wanna “head canon” it, we never actually see how they get away. So you can imagine, if you wish, that the river’s strong current helped, as it did in the script… the strong current that is totally invisible during the episode, yes 😉
This comment covers both Parts 1 and 2 – all this artwork should be compiled into a coffee table book or something. Simply stunning.
Luka Nieto,
Thanks for that!
And I didn’t mean to sound critical. My main thought was how much spookier that final scene of Jaime sinking would’ve been, if we’d seen other Lannister soldiers surrounding him, pleading for help. It made me wonder why that didn’t make the final edit, though the answer could be something as simple as “it didn’t come out looking right,”
As for the currents transporting Jaime downstream – I’ll go with that.
Who are the “magnificent 7” in the Beyond the Wall sketch? I got from left to right: Beric, Thoros, Jorah, Jon, The Hound, Gendry, & Tormund. Is that who you guys see? Or is the 6th Tormund & 7th Gendry?
So much atmosphere in the Dragon pit in the concept art. I wish they’d gone with that treatment. It looks like the long shadows of dusk and the scale of the pit is massive, as is Drogon. The actual thing was way too cheery for my taste, birds chirping ‘n all. I get that they were trying to emphasize that it was still summer, but golly, the weather doesn’t change that dramatically, that suddenly, does it. The white walker didn’t look scary, not in that sunny afternoon and Drogon didn’t look sufficiently terrifying.
*grumble*
My personal feeling is that they’ve grown bored with this project. It’s as if their creative energies have begun to ebb. I mean, the producers have become extraordinarily wealthy from this show, and maybe there’s not that gnawing hunger as when they first began. Gee, maybe they just want to go off and enjoy some of that cash and move onto other things. I don’t completely blame them as waning energy is part of the creative life-cycle, I suppose. I just wish they’d remember that once it’s done, there’s no editing the finished product, which will last for an eternity.
Season 7 just didn’t do it for me. So far, I’ve only re-watched episodes 4 and 5.
*grumble*
Anon,
“The white walker didn’t look scary, not in that sunny afternoon….”
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Are you talking about Captured Wight, aka that poor creature Sandor used as a pin cushion?
I thought he was scary as f*ck in the Dragonpit, especially when he jumped out of the box and ran straight at Cersei. Unless he was just in a rush to get away from the Hound.
Yes this a going a few years back too. There was Inside Game of Thrones Seasons 1 and 2 , Cogman, then Inside Game of Thrones Seasons 3 and 4, Taylor, had happened to season 5,6,and 7? Other books on the show? Seems a market there.
Boojam,
Yes, I remember those books S1 – S4. They were nice. I don’t think there has been any since. Maybe HBO is waiting for the series to end before releasing a behind the scenes book covering all the seasons or something.
Boojam,
Agree Boojam. I keep looking on HBO website and Amazon for the Inside books. I really enjoyed them, they were lovely books.
Luka Nieto,
Can I just say, as someone who got a MA in Film and done some writing, yes logic always comes into play when writing. Writers do think about these things and for the most part try to avoid “plot holes” or things that don’t make much sense but there are times that you just need to sacrifice logic for practical reasons, else you get stuck trying to work out the logistics or sacrifice the flow of the story. If you really think about it, every single movie and every single show, regardless of how rooted in reality they may be, will have things that don’t really make sense or are not logical.