HBO shares animated storyboard-to-screen comparison for Game of Thrones

It’s been a few years since Game of Thrones ended its run, but with the new spinoff House of the Dragon on the way, it’s a great time to look back on the original show. Not that we really need an excuse, right?

HBO posted a clip from the show to the official Game of Thrones Twitter account, with the original storyboard animated and superimposed against the bottom of it. This lets us get a look at how the scene changed from storyboard to execution, which is always cool. Check it out:

Captioned “The Lion and the Dragon,” this scene is taken from the second episode of season 6, “Home.” In it, Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) makes his way into the pit where Daenerys Targaryen had left two of her dragons chained. Rhaegal and Viserion are so fierce that no one has dared to go near them since Daenerys fled the city in the previous season…but Tyrion has a fascination with dragons, and wants to ease the suffering that being locked up in the dungeon has caused them. It’s a beautiful scene that was a standout when the episode initially aired.

As you can see, this scene stayed pretty faithful to the storyboard. The only really noticeable changes were that Tyrion was originally supposed to trip as he approached the dragons, which led into an ominous shot of him looking up to see them both standing over him. As much as that would have been neat, it’s pretty understandable that the show chose a less klutzy path for Tyrion in that very tense moment. It probably would have undermined the tension to have him tripping over his own feet and such.

There was also supposed to be a shot that focused on Rhaegal’s face after Tyrion beseeches the dragons not to eat him, but instead the shot remains on Tyrion as he flinches while the dragons growl. Again, that makes sense considering how expensive the dragons were to animate and how good Dinklage’s acting is.

House of the Dragon release date remains a mystery

Speaking of dragons, we’re still waiting on that other Westeros show from HBO, House of the Dragon. Set some 200 years before Game of Thrones, this one is a prequel which covers a brutal Targaryen civil war called the Dance of the Dragons. Looking back at this scene with Rhaegal and Viserion is a great reminder of how much personality these mighty creatures had. Many more dragons are slated to be in House of the Dragon, so it’s really exciting to think about how they all might act.

As of right now, we know that House of the Dragon is coming in 2022, but exactly when remains a mystery. There were rumors that it was coming in April, but they were debunked. House of the Dragon is still filming as of quite recently, so it’s likely we may not get to see it until later in the year.

On the bright side, that means there’s still plenty of time for another Game of Thrones rewatch.

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