After a frenzied few months of reports, photos, and videos, the final week of filming on Game of Thrones Season 6 has finally arrived. “Hardhome” director Miguel Sapochnik is directing the ninth and tenth episodes of Season 6, and by the sounds of his tweets, it’s been an intense shoot.
Sapochnik tweeted this on December 12, meaning his last day of shooting is the 17th.
What is Sapochnik shooting? Recent reports indicate that there’s been filming around Magheramorne Quarry, where the production films scenes at Castle Black. That would also track with some photos and a video that Carice van Houten (Melisandre) took on the Season 6 set. In the video, she’s walking through mud, which seems about right for slushy conditions at the Wall. (Keep in mind that other reports have it that whatever Van Houten filmed will air early in the year. Still, though: shooting at Castle Black.)
More evidence that there’s filming afoot at the Wall: some new photos posted on Instagram by Lene Seested, an agent from Panorama Agency, the organization that represents Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane).
(Surprise, surprise: the Instagram post has been taken down. Luckily, the internet is forever.)
Going clockwise from the top left, we’ve got Hivju wearing a “You Know Shite All, Jon Snow” shirt, some mud that looks a lot like the mud Van Houten was walking through in the aforementioned video, and a couple of shooting rigs photographed against a mountainous backdrop. Seested also posted a second photo, of the monitor set-up behind the scenes.
(This one’s also been taken down. But see above: internet is forever.)
It’s hard to tell much from this photo, but I see more mountains on the leftmost monitor, and figures who look to be wearing black on the rightmost. They could be Night’s Watchmen, or it could be the lighting. Night shoots are tricky like that.
The photo of the monitors went up last Friday, while the collage from above was posted last Thursday, so odds are these photos were taken sometime last week. With filming coming to a close in a mere three days, these may be the last on-set images we get to pour over until the build-up for Season 7. I’m getting a little misty…