A surprising real-life animal was used as a reference for Daenerys’ dragons

We’ve watched Daenerys’ dragons grow for seven seasons on Game of Thrones, from the time they were no bigger than house cats all the way through to now, when they’re the size of 747s. Since season 2, special effects company Pixomondo has been working to bring the dragons to life.  CEO Thilo Kuther recently chatted with Gamespot about the process. “I think from outside, it feels like, ‘How hard can it be? It’s a dragon, and it looks natural, and it acts like a dragon would act.’ But the way to get there is a lot of meetings, discussions, back and forth of versions, until [we] settle on a specific one.”

Actually, that sounds rather hard to us — it’s not as though there are actual dragons around for you to model your work after. That problem led the team to look elsewhere for inspiration:

"When they got bigger in Season 3 and 4, there was a lot of, ‘So if a dragon is this big, how can it lift itself up? What is it? Is it a bat? Or is it a bird? Is it an eagle? And the amount of energy that went into these discussions is beyond belief. That’s why they went to a Trader Joe’s and bought a chicken, and took it apart, and said, ‘So, how does that work?’"

So there you have it. Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion were inspired by a chicken from Trader Joe’s. Here there be dragons:

PINECREST, FL – OCTOBER 18: Helaine Goodner exits with her groceries after shopping at the grand opening of a Trader Joe’s on October 18, 2013 in Pinecrest, Florida. Trader Joe’s opened its first store in South Florida where shoppers can now take advantage of the California grocery chains low-cost wines and unique items not found in other stores. About 80 percent of what they sell is under the Trader Joe’s private label. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

As the dragons grew larger, Pixomondo looked at the skin of elephants for reference. “[Y]ou see how the skin starts stretching over, and it’s rolling over the muscle and the bones,” Kuther said.

A lack of real-world references wasn’t the only problem faced by Pixomondo. You might think that working on the world’s biggest television show of the past 20 years would come with an unlimited budget, but you would be wrong, at least in the early years. “[T]hey only have a certain amount of money for the dragons,” Kuther said, “so if it’s not possible to do certain things for the money, then they’d rather not show the dragons, and cut back on the dragons if the quality’s not right. With every season it got clearer and clearer how complex that task was.”

Pixomondo initially had other jobs on Game of Thrones, but as Dany’s children grew, they started to take up all of the company’s time. That work culminated in Jon’s meeting with Drogon in season 7, a sequence that was more complicated than it looked.

"You have an expectation of what that’s going to look like. That’s why they looked at elephants, where there is rougher and harsher skin, but then you have, around facial areas, their skin is softer, and when you touch it with your fingers, it would actually give in. So you see the fingers pressing in a little bit. When they shoot it, they usually have a cushion where you can touch it and press your fingers in, so we’re taking that information and applying it to the skin."

If Drogon and Rhaegal continue to grow in season 8, Pixomondo will have its hands plenty full. (We imagine Viserion is done growing, unfortunately.) Whatever the case, the company should be proud of its work. According to Kuther, select audiences can’t even tell the dragons are fake. “I showed this to a group of little 9-year-olds,” Kuther recalled, chuckling, “and they said, ‘How’d you get the dragon to do that?'”

Next: Discover how Cersei’s gorgeous map of Westeros was made

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