Producers hint at how Cersei’s map room will figure into Game of Thrones season 8

The Game of Thrones season 7 Blu-ray boxset has been out since December, but it’s still yielding new nuggets of information. We were pursuing the commentary tracks and noticed something interesting. There may even be a whiff of SPOILERS in the air.

This particular nugget was dropped on one of two commentaries for Episode 704, “The Spoils of War.” This commentary features producer Chris Newman, visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer and visual effects producer Steve Kullback. They’re discussing the scene where Cersei hosts Iron Banker Tycho Nestoris in her specialized courtyard, the one with a giant map of Westeros painted on the floor. Although the set looks like it’s outdoors, the scenes are actually filmed inside the Paint Hall at Titanic Studios in Belfast. And therein lies the interesting part.

You see, according to Kullback, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss specifically asked that the set look like it’s outdoors. “Dan and David asked us to make it an exterior location in an upcoming episode, but I can’t tell you why,” he said. “But that’ll pay off, too.” Hmmm.

• Chris Newman: “The courtyard always was thought of as being an exterior courtyard, even before she had the map painted, hence the sunlight.”
• Joe Bauer: “It used to be at least a story taller, but there was a need to see the sky in this coverage.”
• Kullback: “Forthcoming coverage.“

Underlines added for emphasis. And mystery…

So basically, it’s important for a future episode that we be able to see the sky from the map room. We can only think of one reason why: dragons. We’re calling it: At some point in season 8, someone — probably Cersei — is gonna look up from the map room, and they’re going to see an unwelcome visitor in the sky. But if it’s dragons, are they dead or alive?

There have been indications that dragons of one kind of another could pay a visit to King’s Landing in season 8. Now we’re getting hints of what that visit may look like. How long until season 8 debuts again?

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