Game of Thrones showrunners explain their spoiler lockdown

Game of Thrones may be one of the principal inspirations for the “spoiler alert.” This is partly due to the nature of the show—it’s based on already-published novels and has stayed actually surprisingly faithful to the source material over the course of five seasons. (Book-readers will probably argue that point, but consider how quickly shows like Dexter and True Blood deviated from the books series). All the major beats the show has hit were known to book readers. It was just a matter of if you wanted to know.

But with The Winds of Winter not being published ahead of the new season, Game of Thrones now enters new territory, where all things are spoilers. And although some might assume that this means none of us know what’s coming, that’s just not true. After all, the show films on location, mainly out of doors, and with thousands upon thousands of extras. Trust me: the spoilers are out there. I actually wrote them all up in one large post. (If you don’t want to know, do yourself a favor and don’t click that link.)

But since there are no book beats to follow, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss would probably prefer those kinds of posts not to exist. And from the sounds of it, it seems that the show has developed what in politics is known as “the talking point”: an argument about a subject that the politician and their surrogates will go on TV and relay. We saw this talking point made on Conan the other night by John Bradley (Sam Tarly). Now Benioff and Weiss are front and center with the same message in Entertainment Weekly. Said Weiss:

Any sane person would admit that knowing this stuff in advance lessens the experience of watching it, and yet people are really hungry to find out things that that will make something they presumably like worse for them. So I don’t totally get it.

This picture is a spoiler.

Or as Bradley put it: “Do you want me to just let you, here in the street, or do you want to see it for yourself the way it was meant to be discovered?”

It’s not a bad argument, for the record. But it’s certainly not one that could be made before now. EW describes the impressive lengths the show went to this year to try and keep things under wraps.

To pull off the new season of the Emmy-winning drama, the first that’s set almost entirely set beyond the scope of George R.R. Martin’s novels, the producers implemented a score of heightened security measures. No more paper scripts (all electronic). The “circle of trust” was tightened among the cast and network executives with regard to story detail. Code names were used for certain characters and scenes. HBO’s international partners will get their copies of episodes much closer to each hour’s U.S. debut. And on the set itself, security was increased in an attempt to prevent fans from taking photos of the production.  

This picture is a spoiler

The production didn’t really tighten security on photogs until after a certain photo ran in the Daily Mail. Although the article doesn’t get specific, I’m guessing Benioff is referring to whoever took this picture when he says: “I just want to point out that guy’s an a–hole. You’re not cool for doing that, you’re an a–hole.”

Many fan photos weren’t of a particularly good quality, even if fans went to major lengths to bring them to us. “One guy hiked 18 hours on foot in the middle of Spain’s La Mancha desert to take pictures,” Weiss said. “Another guy in Northern Ireland crawled through the mud and did his own little private commando mission.”

The article does try and put forth the counterargument—and the one I would make—that knowing what’s coming doesn’t lessen enjoyment of the show. In fact, knowing what’s coming means that viewers are free to pay closer attention to the details. Foreknowledge hasn’t lessened my enjoyment for the past five seasons of this show, even though:

• I knew the moment I saw that Season 1 episode 9 was entitled “Baelor” that Sean Bean would not make the final episode.
• I knew that the Lannisters would win the Battle of Blackwater
• I knew the moment Benioff and Weiss said at the end of Season 2 that Season 3 would only be “the first half of A Storm of Swords” that Episode 9 would be the Red Wedding.
• I knew that Jack Gleeson was done by Season 4 Episode 2 when I saw it was titled “The Lion and the Rose.”
• I knew Jon Snow would be stabbed until he passed out (and probably died) at the end of last season

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ALREADY KNEW?”

And yet this seems to befuddle Benioff and Weiss. They argue that you wouldn’t want a website called “Last Pages of Great Books,” and then proceed to spoil Anna Karenina. (Which, seriously, that was published in 1877. You’re not spoiling anything, dudes. Also, not only are there people who would love that website idea, but it would be hella successful. Someone tell the FanSided brass we need a dot com name reserved, stat!)

“It’s like protecting your house,” reasons showrunner David Benioff. “You make it as hard as possible for burglars in hopes they look for some other house to burgle, but it’s impossible to ever completely secure your house.”

Quips Weiss: “Go burgle The Walking Dead.” 

Meh, Undead Walking‘s got that covered, thanks. I’d rather spend my time watching Thrones.