Today, “Game of Thrones” is one of the most successful series of all time. However, the start of production was anything but smooth. Because the pilot episode was a complete disaster.
The beginning of “Game of Thrones”:
Here you can see the trailer for the prequel series “House of the Dragon”:
House of the Dragon – English trailer for the prequel series to “Game of Thrones”
“No one knew […] what the hell that was.”
What kind of episode was that? You’ve probably never seen the pilot episode of Game of Thrones. Because hardly anyone has that – for good reasons. In interviews with Entertainment Weekly, various people involved talk about the beginnings of the fantasy hit (via 3D Juegos).
Before it even started, newcomer showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had already been planning the series for four years. Then the first filming finally started in Northern Ireland and Morocco. But the ambitious project was not easy to implement.
“Nobody knew what we were doing or what the hell it was,” recalls Jaime Lannister actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. During the arrival of King Robert, a key scene in the first episode, he felt completely ridiculous the whole time. “There was not the slightest chance that this project would be a game-changer for anyone,” is how he describes the feeling at the time. It’s a good thing he was wrong about that.
The reasons for failure
So what exactly went wrong in this pilot episode? “At first we thought everything was going well. But that was just because we didn’t know any better,” explains David Benioff.
Most importantly, the episode failed to explain key plot details. If you weren’t familiar with George RR Martin’s original book, you wouldn’t have been able to understand important moments of the plot at all. So it shouldn’t have been made clear that Jaime and Cersei Lannister are siblings. This made the “incest scene,” which is actually a big reveal, completely irrelevant.
There are also said to have been some problems in the scenes with Daenerys, who was still played by Tamzin Merchant at the time. From a horse that wouldn’t jump over a campfire to sexually aroused horses that distracted the actors while filming Daenerys’ wedding night. Nothing seemed to be working properly.
Unfortunately, the production wasn’t technically convincing either. “This looks like it was filmed in my garden,” someone reportedly remarked.
In addition, the genre of the series was probably not entirely clear to many of those involved. “Is it fantasy with a drama influence? Is it a drama with a fantasy influence?” They tried to keep the fantasy portion as low as possible and, above all, to make the dialogue more “realistic”.
But the result obviously didn’t fit, as it’s still essentially a fantasy story and not a purely historical retelling.
Despite a decent budget, the production overall felt too “small” – not like the epic fantasy saga it wanted to be.
Who saw the episode? So after the pilot episode was filmed, Benioff and Weiss presented a rough cut version to a few friends and family members. The reactions were rather modest.
I showed the episode to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and observed their reactions. You could see on their faces how bored they were. “It’s kind of nothing,” they said. They were really trying to be nice.
David Benioff in an interview with Entertainment Weekly
In addition to the cautious comments, they also received honest facts. Veteran TV producer Craig Mazin summed it up: “You have a huge problem.”
A sample for 10 million dollars
What happened next? Despite the numerous problems, the series was given a second chance by HBO after this disaster. Benioff and Weiss were allowed to reshoot almost all of the material.
There were some changes, including in the cast. The actresses Emilia Clarke and Michelle Fairley have only now taken on their roles as Daenerys Targaryen and Catelyn Stark.
Work was also carried out on the general comprehensibility of the plot, both for the viewer and the actors.
The most significant change was in the tone and focus of the series. While it was difficult to find the right balance between “seriousness and expensive cosplay” in the pilot episode, the series now became as dark as we know it today.
This was really good for the series, although it probably also eliminated the wonderfully bizarre cameo of George RR Marin in an over-the-top Pentoshi costume. A truly tragic loss in my opinion.
Overall, the pilot episode can be seen as a great exercise through which everyone involved was able to learn a lot and thus paved the way for the final series. “We were incredibly lucky to get a $10 million sample,” says Viserys Targaryen actor Harry Lloyd.
Even later, funny situations arose again and again during the production of “Game of Thrones”.
For example, you can find out how Pedro Pascal, the actor of Oberyn Martell, simply fell asleep while filming the well-known fight scene between him and “the mountain” here on MeinMMO:
Pedro Pascal fell asleep while filming a famous scene with “the mountain” in Game of Thrones