The Game of Thrones production spent a lot of time in Spain while filming Season 6, and more time in Girona than almost anywhere else. The city has stood in for areas of King’s Landing (the confrontation on the Sept of Baelor), Braavos (Arya watching the Westeros players), and more (stay tuned). However, according to Catalan-language news source El Punt Avui, the production will not be returning to the city to film Season 7.
Where will it be going instead? At the moment, we don’t know. It’s possible the show won’t return to Braavos, assuming that Arya either gets out of dodge or dies, but it’ll probably need to film scenes in King’s Landing. Then again, the production could always return to Dubrovnik, which stood in for King’s Landing for several seasons before the move to Girona last year, or find somewhere new.
And just because the production is leaving Girona doesn’t mean it’s leaving Spain. A couple of weeks ago, we reported that it was looking at locations on the beautiful Canary Islands, and now, Los Siete Reinos reports that Fresco Films, a Spanish production company involved with Game of Thrones in Spain, is scouting castles.
The New Castle of Manzanares el Real near Madrid. I have no idea if this is one of the castles Fresco Films is looking at, but it could be.
LSR doesn’t know which castles the company is looking at specifically, since there are a whole heaping lot of them in Spain, but notes that Fresco Films has been spending time in the northern province of Galicia. Importantly, it also notes that the scenery and terrain of Galicia are similar to that of Northern Ireland, where the production has traditionally filmed scenes in Westeros. More importantly still, it’s heard from its sources that Game of Thrones Season 7 “will have a significant number of battles in castles or next to them.”
Putting all that together, Game of Thrones may spend a lot of time filming war in Westeros in Season 7. Will Daenerys cross the Narrow Sea and bring the fight home? Will the White Walkers cross the Wall and harass the lords in their castles? We’ll bring you more as it breaks.