Yesterday, we received word that Game of Thrones Season 6 spent a good chunk of this week filming a scene that would be enormous by most television show standards, but was just another day at the office for this one—a scene that included “400 extras.”
Four hundred? How in the name of the Old Gods and the New did the show film a scene that large, out in the open, with that many people, and yet there are no pictures? Because it was done on private land on the outskirts of Larne, just off of Sallagh Road. More importantly, what could they possibly be shooting in Ireland that would include that many people?
Our answer comes via The Ballymena Times today, which provided a slideshow of the area in question. No, it doesn’t show any of the actors, the sets, or the filming. But the images help identify where in Planetos we are.
This looks like more of that Dothraki land where Dany landed at the end of last season. Note the grassy cliffs, which Drogon could be easily napping on just over the ridge.
However, it must be mentioned that this area—the Sallagh Braes—has also stood in for the North before. This was the same area where we saw Brienne and Pod sitting as Littlefinger and Sansa rode by at the beginning of Season 5.
Still, 400 extras is quite a lot. Unless someone is marching an army across the North—and the plan is for us to see that huge host—it’s hard to imagine that this area will stand in for the North in Season 6. On the other hand, when we last left Dany, she was being surrounded by a huge number of extras.
Four hundred people would easily fill the space with bodies and allow CGI to then multiply them into the thousands. When we last checked in on this area, I wondered why, is if this was where they were filming Dany, there were no Dothraki on horseback around. It sounds like we may have found where the production hid them.