After each episode of Game of Thrones, HBO would typically air a short “Inside the Episode” mini-documentary where showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, along with some of the actors, would walk us through the finer points of the hour, like so:
However, when the screen faded to black on the series finale, “The Iron Throne,” there was no “Inside the Episode” feature to be found. What happened?
The short answer is that we don’t know. However, thanks to some sleuthing on the part of Redditor vladtud, it does look like that episode at leasts exists. Or existed:
There it is, with a runtime of 10 minutes. According to Vladtud, it was visible a week after the episode aired but wasn’t playable on HBO in their home country. They claimed to have contacted their HBO affiliate, who told them that while an Inside the Episode feature existed for “The Iron Throne” (as well as a “Game Revealed” segment, which focuses more on the technical aspect of bringing an episode to life), neither would be shown.
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So what gives? Well, HBO could have chosen to save these features for later release, either on their YouTube channel or perhaps as part of a season 8 Blu-ray boxset, or a series boxset.
Another option is that HBO held the features back out of fear of a backlash. It’s no secret that the final season of the show divided fans, with Benioff and Weiss bearing the brunt of the backlash. In the Inside the Episode feature for “The Last of the Starks,” Benioff said that Daenerys “kind of forgot” about the Iron Throne, and the internet had fresh meme material for weeks. Maybe HBO was trying to avoid something similar?
Ultimately, without actually seeing the episode, we might never fully understand why it hasn’t been released. Hopefully it’ll come out soon!
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