HBO to premiere Game of Thrones studio tour in 2020!
Game of Thrones is almost over, but HBO isn’t letting go, and that’s a good thing. Enter the Game of Thrones Studio Tour. HBO has announced it is transforming a110,000 square foot Thrones Studio in Northern Ireland into a fabulous Game of Thrones tourist attraction.
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The Studio Tour is designed to be an interactive experience where visitors can get up close and personal with actual Thrones sets, costumes, weapons and props. The program will also delve deep into Thrones production history with exhibits chronicling the show’s beginnings, development and ascendancy into TV’s blockbuster stratosphere. HBO’s Studio Tour concept art is featured below:
Here’s part of the press release from the HBO Making Game of Thrones blog:
"Located within Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge, Northern Ireland, the tour will bring guests face-to-face with original set pieces, costumes, props, and weapons used to create the world of Game of Thrones. Featuring a compelling mix of behind-the scenes insights, interactive elements, and expansive, fully dressed sets, fans will wander in the very footsteps of Westeros’s most prominent residents, re-living key moments from the series and standing right where they took place."
Thrones fans can’t quibble with the building HBO selected; it’s located at Linen Mill Studios in Banbridge, approximately 25 miles southwest of Belfast. Scenes at Winterfell and Castle Black were filmed here, plus a number of sea battles. Along with that storied history, the same people who built sets for the TV show are remaking the studio into an exhibition space.
Jeff Peters, HBO’s vice president for licensing and retail, says “[i]t’s going to be an immersive experience where fans will feel like they are inside their favorite sets from the show.”
The new Thrones experience was inspired by the Warner Bros.’s Harry Potter Studio Tour near London, and may be just the first of four former Thrones filming locations to be transformed into interactive exhibits.
The other potential sites include the still-intact King’s Landing sets in Belfast and the Castle Back/Wall sets erected in Magheramorne Quarry. An HBO Tour spokesperson says the Linen Mill exhibition “is the first in a series of Game of Thrones Legacy projects announced by HBO last year.”
HBO hasn’t been shy about developing and promoting entertainment derived from their big hit show, such as composer Ramin Djawadi’s Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience and touring showcases of Thrones props and costumes.
The Irish Studio Tour appears to be the biggest and most ambitious Thrones homage thus far, where fans can exult in the same settings where Cersei (Lena Headey) connived, Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) drank wine and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) brooded.
HBO plans to open the Game of Thrones Studio Tour in spring 2020. When asked if HBO intends to generate similar attractions in the USA, Peters replies: “There are not currently plans to create similar attractions in the United States, but it’s possible. We get pitched all the time, and we’re open to a lot of different opportunities.”
Until then, plane tickets to Northern Ireland, anyone?
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