HBO says Brexit won’t affect Game of Thrones production

Yesterday, citizens of the United Kingdom voted for the country to pull out of the European Union. This has profound political and economic implications for Europe and the world at large, but let’s get to the important stuff: does it affect Game of Thrones?

Before the vote, some reports suggested it might (at least for Season 8—Season 7 production is too far along to be affected now). Game of Thrones does a lot of filming in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and therefore will be leaving the European Union. Analysts figured that, with Northern Ireland no longer part of the EU, HBO couldn’t rely on funding from the European Regional Development Fund.

But it ends up that we needn’t have worried. According to Entertainment Weekly, the show hasn’t gotten any money from that particular fund in years, and while Game of Thrones does receive incentives from other regional programs, none of them are expected to be affected by the vote.

HBO released a statement to put anyone still nervous about all this at ease:

"We do not anticipate that the result of the EU Referendum will have any material effect on HBO producing Game of Thrones."

NI Screen, which funds the show’s production, also released a statement:

"This statement is to confirm that Northern Ireland Screen’s production funding comes from the Northern Ireland Executive through Invest NI and does not use monies provided from European funded programmes. We look forward to business as usual."

So that’s that. Still, while HBO is in the clear, the vote didn’t sit well with all of the Game of Thrones cast members. See them get political all over Twitter. First up, Lena “Cersei Lannister” Headey:

Daniel Portman, aka Podrick Payne, was also displeased.

Ditto Eugene Michael Simon, who plays Lancel Lannister.

Maybe the season finale of Game of Thrones can provide some perspective. We don’t know exactly what Cersei’s planning to do in King’s Landing in “The Winds of Winter,” but it might make Brexit look pretty tame.

h/t Deadline