Storyboard artist Adrien van Viersen has just released some impressive storyboards for one of Game of Thrones‘ biggest and most memorable action sequences from last year: the events at Daznak’s Pit in Meereen from “The Dance of Dragons.” The intro slide:
There are over 170 slides in this collection, and it doesn’t even get started until after Dany has descended into the pit. Sometimes, Game of Thrones doesn’t do storyboarding. The Red Wedding, for example, wasn’t storyboarded at all, but clearly this was not one of those times.
Chaos in Daznak’s Pit. It would be fun to scroll through van Viersen’s storyboards while watching the sequence again.
Van Vierson has put all of the slides up to view on his website, and it’s amazing to take a look at the sequence as it was imagined before the filmmakers turned it all into the epic scene of flashing blades and dragon fire as Drogon sweeps in and saves Daenerys from the Sons of The Harpy.
This was a great moment from the scene, when Daenerys and Missandei clasped hands and seemed to accept that the end had come. We didn’t get them standing back to back like this in the actual sequence, but it’s cool to see the other conceptions the design team came up with.
Drogon lights up some dudes. I like how the second panel above mimics almost exactly one of the official shots from the episode:
These storyboards work!
Drogon gets up close and personal with a Harpy.
Van Viersen’s website also has examples of his work on other major films and television shows, such as X-Men 2 and The Flash.