Game of Thrones: The Last Watch, Documentary Feature on the Making of Season 8, to air after series finale!

Kit-Harington-Jon-Snow-Season-8-801-Movistar

It appears the night of Sunday, May 19th will not be our last taste of Game of Thrones. Not quite, anyway. On May 26, a week after the series finale, during the same 9:00–11:00 p.m. ET/PT time-slot in which the show would usually air, we’ll get to watch an epically long 2-hour behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of season eight!

For a year, acclaimed British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay, known for her documentaries Seahorse, Orion: The Man Who Would Be King, Pantomime, The Great Hip Hop Hoax, Sound It Out and Goth Cruise, was embedded on the set of the Game of Thrones and chronicled the creation of the show’s most ambitious and complicated season.

Game of Thrones: The Last Watch will delve deep into the mud and blood to reveal the tears and triumphs involved in the challenge of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the very real studios, fields and car-parks of Northern Ireland. Made with unprecedented access, this film will give us an up-close and personal report from the trenches of production, following the crew and the cast as they contend with extreme weather, punishing deadlines and an ever-excited fandom hungry for spoilers.

The film is advertised as “much more than a ‘making of’ documentary.” It is, instead, “a funny, heartbreaking story, told with wit and intimacy, about the bittersweet pleasures of what it means to create a world – and then have to say goodbye to it.”

Documentary filmmaker Jeanie Finlay
Documentary filmmaker Jeanie Finlay

Game of Thrones: The Last Watch is a Glimmer Films feature created for HBO; directed by Jeanie Finley; executively produced by Game of Thrones producers David Benioff. D.B. Weiss, and Bernadette Caulfield; produced by Jeanie Finlay, Rachel Hooper, and Martin Mahon; edited by Alice Powell; filmed by Jeanie Finlay, Mark Bushnell, Louise Liddy, Aaron Black, and Richard Jephcote; and composed by Hannah Peel.

The documentary will debut on HBO on Sunday, May 26, but it will also be available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand and partnered streaming platforms.

36 Comments

  1. I’m so glad they’re going to wait a week and air it separately. Not just because I don’t want to wait for my second watch of the finale but also to fill the time slot the following week that would be a sorrowful reminder that the show is over. I hope this Jeanie gal was given permission to film some of the table reads and tearful character curtain calls the actors have been talking about.

  2. It is, instead, “a funny, heartbreaking story, told with wit and intimacy, about the bittersweet pleasures of what it means to create a world – and then have to say goodbye to it.”

    There it is again! Another bittersweet lol

  3. Soo, can we expect any announcement regarding episode title’s any time soon? Thats the only way I can see myself surviving until the premiere 😛

  4. This is great. I absolutely love these kind of documentaries. Off topic, but Ms. Finlay is absolutely striking.

  5. This sounds amazing and I can’t wait! Also, I can’t help but think of a What We Do in the Shadows-esque type mocumentary, Westerosi version.
    *Jon goes around the Winterfell rooms to round up his flatmates for a meeting*
    Tormund: Should we wait for the Night King?
    Jon: The Night King is 8,000 years old, I don’t think he’s coming to the flat meeting.
    Then Sansa yells at Arya to clean up her literal bloody dishes.

  6. Meraxes,

    episode titles
    1) Death
    2) More Death
    3) Battle with Death
    4) Death comes again
    5) Even More Death
    6) Death for anyone still living

    I think the question isn’t who is going to live, it’s which characters live to be in the most episodes.

  7. Meraxes:
    Soo, can we expect any announcement regarding episode title’s any time soon? Thats the only way I can see myself surviving until the premiere 😛

    High chance of another trailer or promo this Sunday

    Also, the Red Carpet premiere is next Wednesday and I think we’ve always gotten at least the premiere title in conjunction with the red carpet.

    Also, wonderful news about this documentary. So really 6 weeks of GoT instead of 5!

  8. Meraxes:
    Soo, can we expect any announcement regarding episode title’s any time soon? Thats the only way I can see myself surviving until the premiere 😛

    Any day now!

    Pigeon:
    This is great. I absolutely love these kind of documentaries. Off topic, but Ms. Finlay is absolutely striking.

    She really is!

    Jack Bauer 24: Also, wonderful news about this documentary. So really 6 weeks of GoT instead of 5!

    You mean 7 instead of 6, surely.

  9. Dark Sister,

    <em<"Then Sansa yells at Arya to clean up her literal bloody dishes."
    _____
    Thank you, thank you, thank you for using the word “literal” properly!

    ( It irks me to read or hear people abuse the word “literally” when they really mean “figuratively” or “virtually.”)

    Very truly yours,
    – King Stannis

  10. Luka Nieto: Any day now!

    She really is!

    You mean 7 instead of 6, surely.

    There’s 5 weeks between 801 and 806.

    Btw, you’ve been super busy lately. Thanks for all of the posts!

  11. I wonder, if we can see it in good old Europe, too?
    Don’t know which the partnered streaming platforms are…

  12. Jack Bauer 24,

    Math isn’t my strong suit, as you can see 😛

    And yeah, today has been especially busy. And it’s not over yet!

    cos alpha,

    It’ll probably be aired in most international channels that air the show, subtitled.

  13. I will watch the hell out of this! Game of Thrones has always had incredible behind-the-scenes content detailing the staggering amount of work that goes into making every aspect of this wonderful show, and I expect this documentary will be no different. Besides, settling to watch something GOT-related at 9 PM on the Sunday after the finale will certainly help to take the edge off of what’s likely to be some serious “I can’t believe it over” blues!

  14. Clob:
    I’m so glad they’re going to wait a week and air it separately.Not just because I don’t want to wait for my second watch of the finale but also to fill the time slot the following week that would be a sorrowful reminder that the show is over.I hope this Jeanie gal was given permission to film some of the table reads and tearful character curtain calls the actors have been talking about.

    I don’t know if I can take all that. I still tear up at David Tennant trying to keep it together on his “Golden Wrap” as the Doctor. But then I go watch the video from his wrap party with everyone from the show lip syncing to “I Would Walk” by The Proclaimers and then I smile again. Would love to see the cast do something silly and fun like that 🙂

  15. Somewhat off-topic –
    With apologies to dead characters and dead cats*….

    Happy 84th birthday to Grand Maester Pycelle
    (Julian Glover)! 🎂🎉

    * (S4e1, after Jaime sees Qyburn treating Cersei)
    Jaime: “…I’m surprised. You never let Pycelle near you.”
    Cersei: “You think I’d let that old lecher put his hands on me? He smells like a dead cat.”
    Jaime: “I’m not sure I’ve ever smelled a dead cat.”
    Cersei: “Well, they smell like Pycelle.”

  16. This is crazy-exciting!! {8”-D I couldn’t agree more with Clob & Jared. And yeah, she is quite pretty, wow! Under 2 1/2 weeks…8-|

  17. This is awesome. Very happy to hear this.

    I also hope the Blu-Ray will have a good bit of behind the scenes stuff, maybe with retrospective insight on things from previous seasons that they haven’t discussed before.

    As far as I’m concerned, Peter Jackson set the gold standard for bonus features with the Appendices to the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, as there are like 80 hours of extremely in-depth and fascinating documentaries on those movies on the Extended Edition sets.

    And they’re very re-watchable.

    Obviously I’m not expecting anything of that magnitude for GoT, but something significant on the Blu-Ray would be nice. So far I thought the bonus features were kind of lackluster in terms of depth, not offering many details or much insight.

    Hopefully that will change this year !

  18. I hope and reasonably expect this will also air here in the UK on Sky Atlantic! Otherwise I assume it will feature in the Blu-Ray collection when it’s eventually released.

  19. Meraxes:
    Soo, can we expect any announcement regarding episode title’s any time soon? Thats the only way I can see myself surviving until the premiere

    With the red carpet premiere next week we are surely only days away from that one. I doubt we will get the others until a week before they air however.

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