The Game of Thrones Season 6 DVD and Blu-ray box sets feature 13 audio commentaries, more than any Game of Thrones home video release yet. We bring you the highlights of each.
Episode 601, “The Red Woman.” Commentary by director Jeremy Podeswa, director of photography Greg Middleton, and Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne).
- The opening shot, where the camera comes off the Wall and slowly moves closer to Jon Snow’s dead body, was scripted by writers David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who’re also the showrunners and creators.
- At least two of the other Night’s Watchmen who defend Jon Snow’s body along with Davos and Dolorous Edd appeared in prior episodes, although they were never featured prominently. Podeswa deems these people “the French resistance.”
- The French resistance takes Jon Snow’s body into the Lord Commander’s chamber. Because of the large number of people this chamber now had to accommodate (plus Ghost), the production rebuilt it much bigger, and even moved the door. Podeswa was afraid people would notice, but no one did.
- For the shots when everyone is standing around Jon Snow’s body, Podeswa took inspiration from a painting by Rembrandt: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp.
- Podeswa read “on the internet” that Olly was the most hated person on television. So someone on the production reads the online commentary!
- We knew this, but it bears repeating: it is really, really hard to shoot Ghost. The production shoots a wolf separately in another part of the damn world, then sizes him up and inserts him into the scene with digital wizardry.
- The first thing shot for the season was Sansa and Theon running through a snowy forest during their escape from Winterfell. It was summer in Northern Ireland at the time, and when they shot the scene, it was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The special effects team is rather amazing.
- There’s a funny moment where the trio wonders exactly how much of Theon’s genitalia Ramsay cut off, before quickly moving on…
- Movie magic: In the scene where Cersei sees Jaime sailing into Blackwater Bay with Myrcella’s body in tow, Lena Headey is reacting to nothing. She filmed her part of that scene in Dubrovnik, while Nikolaj Coster-Waldau filmed his in a quarry in Northern Ireland.
- We know that Game of Thrones didn’t return to the Alcázar of Seville, which stood in for the Water Gardens of Dorne in Season 5, to shoot scenes in Dorne for Season 6. Why didn’t it go back? According to Podeswa, “for logistical reasons.” Glad to have that cleared up.
- If you were wondering why Doran Martell was walking for his final scene, it ends up that the production did built him a wheelchair, but it wasn’t working on the rocky path they were using, so they had him hobble along with Ellaria’s help instead.
- Incidentally, no one comments much on the (ridiculous) events that transpire in the Dornish scenes, except to say that they “propel the Sand Snakes’ story forward.” Also, they laugh when Obara stabs Trystane through the face, because what else are you gonna do?
- Podeswa compares the chemistry between Tyrion and Varys to that between Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains in Casablanca. “Cool, yeah,” Portman chimes in.
- Maisie Williams, badass that she is, does “all own stunts.” That might not be true of the entire season, but it’s apparently true of the fight between Blind Arya and the Waif in this episode.
- Podeswa on the final Melisandre scene: “It really is all about character. It’s not really about just doing something for shock value, but seeing who Melisandre really is. This revelation is so important to her character and understanding her retrospectively, what she’s done in the past and what she’s about to do in the future.” He’s clearly proud of this sequence.
Episode 602, “Home.” Commentary by writer Dave Hill, Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton), Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), and Ben Crompton (Dolorous Edd).
This commentary is fun, but pretty lightweight. Commentaries with actors tend to be like that. The group pokes a lot of fun at each other, and they all bitch about having to lie about Jon Snow’s resurrection during the off-season, but there’s not a ton of juice here.
With that said, here’re the highlights…
- This isn’t important at all, but when I heard it, I laughed. At the very top of the commentary, all the actors say who they are and who they play. And then, “And I’m Dave Hill, and I play a writer.” Then there’s a long pause, and an incredibly insincere laugh from one of the actors. They’re humoring the unfunny writer!
- Everyone agrees that Max von Sydow was wonderful to work with, and Hill helpfully adds that he has “the biggest hands you’ve ever seen on anyone.” Kay.
- By the sound of it, the group recorded this commentary on the day that “The Door” leaked prematurely. Cunningham comment about “the idiot spoilers” and Hill remarks that “people seem to like the new season.” It’s a moment in time.
- During filming on Season 6, we heard that a rockslide delayed shooting in Magheramorne Quarry. According to the people on this commentary, the sequence that got delayed was the one where the wildlings invade Castle Black.
- So far as Rheon is concerned, the Mountain is like “Shredder from the Turtles.”
- Dave Hill notes that the idea behind the High Sparrow was to present a character who is “very much about what he says he’s about…He says, ‘I’m here to tear everything down.’ And that’s what he’s here for.” In a world where everyone has an ulterior motive, that makes the High Sparrow unique.
- Hill says that Tyrion’s speech to the dragons, about how he asked for a dragon when he was young and cried himself to sleep when he found out they were extinct, was taken from the first book.
- How smart are dragons? According to Dave Hill, they’re “dolphin-clever.” “They’re like big, winged, fire-breathing dolphins.”
- By the sound of it, the official line from director Jeremy Podeswa is that Ramsay’s decision to kill Roose was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Dave Hill: “It was always an option, but…he didn’t know this was the moment he was gonna kill his father.”
- Iwan Rheon, who plays Ramsay Bolton, to Walda Bolton, who’s being escorted to her death by Ramsay Bolton: “Run away. Run away!” It’s a weird irony loop.
- Hill during the scene when Sansa and Theon say goodbye: “We wanted Sansa to acknowledge that he’s changed, that he’s not the same Theon that she hated for so long.”
- Cunningham points out that he and Carice van Houten (Melisandre) once shot a movie called Black Butterflies together. They played lovers. It’s weird.
- Per Dave Hill, during the resurrection scene, Melisandre intones “a Valyrian chant that I just made up…Very traditional.”