This month marks the 15th anniversary of Game of Thrones, and it's been a weeks-long celebration that's still going strong. On April 17, HBO honored the release of its iconic fantasy series by dropping a new mini-featurette with previously unseen footage of the cast saying goodbye to the series as they filmed their final scenes.
To say it's an emotional watch is an understatement; for anyone who's deeply invested in Game of Thrones, seeing actors like Kit Harington and Maisie Williams break down in tears as they say goodbye to their showbiz family they'd built over the course of nearly a decade working on the series is powerful. We've had other great TV series since, but I struggle to think of any with such a solid core cast that grew over the course of making their show year after year after year, until it became such a phenomenon that we all couldn't help but go along for the ride with them.
If you haven't seen the footage yet, check it out below. Then we need to talk about it, because it does reveal a few interesting tidbits about the production of Thrones' final season.
Which scenes did the Game of Thrones cast film last?
As with most shows, Game of Thrones did not film its final season in strictly chronological fashion. With massive set piece episodes like "The Long Night" and "The Bells," that becomes even more true as the production juggled a million and one moving parts to create some of the most ambitious battle scenes ever shown on television.
For example, Emilia Clarke had to come back to set after filming Daenerys Targaryen's traumatic death scene at the hands of her lover Jon Snow. "Thank you, just so...thank you, everyone. Thank you so much. I'm gonna miss this like hell," Clarke says while fighting back tears on a snowy indoor studio set. The costume she's wearing is her heavy white fur jacket from "The Long Night." Notably, she doesn't have any fake blood or other signs of battle on her during this scene, which means it happens before she truly gets into the thick of battle alongside Dany's stalwart protector Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen).
Given the famously lengthy production of "The Long Night," this was most likely a pick-up shot filmed deep in production to fill in a gap in the show's footage, similar to how House of the Dragon recently underwent minor reshoots.
Both Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) broke down in tears filming their final scene in the Dragonpit, where Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) is elected the new King of the Six Kingdoms.
It's hard to tell if Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) cried at all during his final scene, because he was covered in so much fake blood and dirt from Jaime's fight against Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) that it's impossible to tell. Nonetheless, it's obvious that it's an emotional goodbye. "It's been nine years of my life. I'm gonna miss the people, it's always the people," he says. "No matter what I will always look back with immense pride."
As for Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), it looks like her final scene was one filmed in the massive stairwell where the Clegane brothers had their final showdown. Headey keeps things brief as she heads off set, with kind words for the crew. The notable thing here is that the stairwell is in good condition, which means Headey's final scene was almost certainly shot before the entire set was destroyed during the face-off between Sandor and Gregor Clegane.
More than any other part of season 8, the destruction of King's Landing necessitated some production timeline trickery. The series built a massive set for the city, only to tear it all down when Daenerys burnt it with dragon fire. Obviously, anything that happened in the ruins had to be shot at the very end. As such, we get more surprises, such as the fact that Peter Dinklage's (Tyrion Lannister) last scene on the series is his iconic walk of horror through the ashes of the city he once called home.
The same is true for Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), whose last shot is one right at the end of "The Bells," when we find out Arya has survived the inferno that Daenerys unleashed on King's Landing by the skin of her teeth. "I've really struggled sometimes with how it's completely changed my life. And every year, coming back here and being with all you guys has really made it all worthwhile," Williams says through tears. The featurette splices Williams' goodbye with footage of her and the other Stark kids on set during season 1, because it's going for maximum emotional damage.
We close out with Kit Harington, who's one of the few actors who has previously discussed his final scene. It was in the city of King's Landing alongside Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) and Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), which clocks it as part of the series finale, "The Iron Throne." But we've never actually seen the footage of it, or what Harington said to his Thrones cast and crewmates...until now.
"I really feel like my heart is breaking," Harington says, as the tears start to flow. "I love this show. More than...more than, I think, anything. It has never been a job for me. It gave me my wife. It's...this will always be the greatest thing I'll ever do and be a part of, and you've all been just my family. I love you for it, and thank you so much."
Words fit for a man who could have been king.
Over the course of its eight season, Game of Thrones proved that adult fantasy was a viable genre for prestige television, and that if it was done well and looked after its fans, they would turn out in the millions for the journey. Many studios have tried to replicate Thrones' success in the seven years since it aired its final episode, but none have managed to capture the zeitgeist in quite the same way.
Will we ever see another Game of Thrones? Only time will tell. But this month is all about remembering the lightning in a bottle of that series, and what it meant to so many of us. We may never see its like again...but at least we'll always be able to rewatch it, and return to Westeros alongside the likes of Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and all the rest one more time.
Game of Thrones' anniversary on April 17 may have passed, but Winter Is Coming's Game of Thrones Anniversary Month celebration isn't over yet! Stay tuned for more retrospectives, quizzes, deep dives and more as we look on this beloved fantasy series.
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