Learn the secrets of the Game of Thrones title sequence

Over the years, the Game of Thrones title sequence has become iconic, showing us the lands of Westeros and beyond with each new episode, and always changing to reflect what was going to happen in the episode to come.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, title designer Angus Wall says that this credits sequence wasn’t planned from the beginning. Originally, the show was going to show us a map of Westeros between scenes, so we would know where the action was taking place in relation to everything else. But there was a problem. “It broke up the narrative in the most horrible way,” Wall said. “But we realized there was a need to tell the geography of the world — in the same way, that a legend would for a book. That became the title sequence.”

RELATED PRODUCT

Cincinnati Reds Game Of Thrones Direwolf Bobblehead

Buy Now!

Buy Now!

The next challenge was how to make the sequence interesting. Eventually, they got the idea to put the map on the inside of a sphere.

"We don’t have to worry about what’s outside of the world because we’re always going to be inside the world. It’s much easier to orient yourself spatially if you can see where you’re going. Or, put more concisely: It’s boring to have flat worlds."

Wall also talks about how the map changes with each episode. We all know what that’s about. So in “Battle of the Bastards,” there’s a Bolton sigil on Winterfell but in “The Winds of Winter,” it’s a Stark sigil. Is there any other show that goes to such lengths to make us feel involved? According to Wall, the idea is for the map to be interactive, “like the game of Risk.”

Of course, having an ever-changing map presented Wall and his team with challenges other TV shows don’t have. “The biggest debate is always what detail to leave in and what detail to leave out,” he said. “Would we have loved to show the movement of every army? Yes. But it’s an incredible amount of work just to create different locations and different versions of each location.”

And how will the sequence keep evolving for season 8?

"The technology that we’ve used to create this has changed so radically over the course of all these seasons, so there are constant little technical upgrades that happen every season…. The definition has improved so much. As to what this means for season 8, I can’t wait for people to see it."

Neither can we! Is it April 14 yet?

To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels