Behind-The-Scenes Photos Show What Life Was Really Like On The “Game Of Thrones” Set
One of the most incredible things about a show like Game of Thrones is how the cast and creators go to every length to make it as realistic as possible. Watching an episode of the show is like being transported to another time and place. Everything from the set to the costumes makes you feel like you're really in Winterfell fighting White Walkers.
Of course, at the end of the day, it is just a television show. In real life, Cersei isn't out for blood and the Night King seems like a pretty nice guy. Check out these behind-the-scenes photos to see what it's really like on the Game of Thrones set.
Khaleesi Left A Beautiful Send-Off For Jorah
MAJOR SPOILER: Jorah is dead. But in true Ser Jorah Mormont fashion, he went out like a hero defending his Queen from a hoard of Wights. His send-off was expected during the Battle of Winterfell (Samwell wouldn't have given him that huge sword for nothing) but it was still sad to see the Khaleesi's best friend go down in the battle.
Emilia Clarke was also pretty upset about it and posted this behind-the-scenes photo of the pair from set with some touching hashtags like #serjorahforlyfe. We're not crying, you're crying.
Apparently, Cersei And Septa Are Best Friends
In honor of the season eight premiere, Lena Headey decided to post a mind-melting throwback photo of her as Cersei hanging out with the head Septa. Game of Thrones fans are probably a little uneasy looking at this, considering Septa was the one who tortured Cersei and forced her to walk naked through the streets while yelling "Shame! Shame! Shame!"
It looks like Cersei and Septa let bygones be bygones. We'll see if Cersei feels the same way about her brothers.
Defend The Wall, Or Wonderwall?
Emilia Clarke sure seems to know how to de-stress while on set. She shared this throwback photo to the time she and John Bradley West AKA Samwell Tarley took in an Oasis concert between shooting.
Emilia, like any other respectable Game of Thrones fan, couldn't pass up the opportunity to compare The Wall in the show to Wonderwall. When you're standing there with Liam Gallagher and a member of the Night's Watch, how could you pass it up?
The Alternate Storyline No One Expected
Okay, another MAJOR SPOILER coming but the Night King is dead. After a (what felt like 5-minute) stare down with Bran, he was stabbed to death by Arya with a Valyrian steel dagger. After the episode, Isaac Hempstead-Wright posted this photo that shows maybe the Night King isn't such a bad guy.
He captioned the post: "Here's a still taken from the alternate episode 3 ending in which the Night King becomes Bran's carer and they both live happily ever after." Honestly, we'd watch it.
Ghost Has A Stand In
Just like the actors of Game of Thrones all had stand-ins during filming, so did fan favorite direwolf Ghost. That's right, even though the hound was a CGI creation, a "stand-in" direwolf puppet was still used on set, and it looks like its seen some things!
The revelation that a puppet for Ghost was used was revealed during Game of Thrones: The Last Watch, a documentary that aired one week after the series finale. Audiences didn't know how to respond to the new information and let their horror known on social media.
No Hard Feelings, Right?
The only thing stranger than seeing Bran and the Night King being buddy-buddy is seeing Arya and the Night King sharing a selfie. It's not clear whether this photo was taken before or after Arya stabbed in in the chest and made him explode into a million tiny pieces of ice.
The actor who plays the Night King, Vladimir Furdik, doesn't seem to care. When he posted this selfie he captioned it with "She filled me with a smile."
Mother Of The Green Screen Dragon
Those dragons in the show might look real but it's very obvious that they aren't real. Emilia Clarke posted this photo of her on Drogon to prepare us for the season eight premiere. This peek into how the dragon scenes are actually filmed just goes to show how incredible Emilia is as an actress.
The fact that she can just sit on a green screen and it looks like she's almost being bucked off mid-air means she deserves an Emmy Award ASAP.
The Giant Killer And Giant's Babe
Best death of the season so far definitely goes out to little Bella Ramsey, who played the small but fierce Lyanna Mormont. In fashion true to her character, she went out stabbing a giant in the eye despite being crushed to death. Lyanna is now officially The Giant Killer in all important Game of Thrones lore.
That's why this photo of her with Giants Babe AKA Tormund is even better. We're not sure who is scarier.
The Night King Is Just That Hardcore
The unsung heroes of Game of Thrones is the makeup and prosthetics team. For an average episode of the show, the team usually has 50 people working on prosthetics for up to 70 actors at a time. The one who gets the most attention is the Night King, who sits for four hours in the makeup chair before hitting the set.
The makeup and prosthetics would take even longer if he didn't already have hand sculpted casts made of his face and chest for the team to work with beforehand.
A Different Type Of Sibling Love
Newcomers to Game of Thrones are always shocked by the fact that fans have stopped caring about the incest relationship at the center of the show. So much other important stuff is happening, Jaime and Cersei's relationship is really the last of our worries right now.
Lena Headey and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau don't seem to be too phased by their strange on-screen relationship either. When Lena posted this throwback photo she jokingly captioned it "Best Bro."
Sophie Turner's Behind-The-Scenes Photo Is All Too Relatable
While every other cast member was sharing heartwarming photos and throwbacks from the past eight seasons, Sophie Turner decided to take a different route. The actress posted this to her Instagram with the caption "In honor of the final season of Thrones premiering tonight...Here's a picture of me asleep on set."
The lady of the North clearly knows that you can't win a battle against the undead that lasts a "long night" without some beauty rest.
Khal Drogo Is Back Just To Recreate Dirty Dancing
Khal Drogo and Daenerys had an interesting relationship. She might have been sold to him as a child bride and heavily abused, but eventually, they formed a special bond. That bond obviously translated between the actors who played the characters.
Even after seven seasons apart, Emilia Clarke and Jason Momoa still look like best friends. They're even tight enough to attempt (and fail) to do the Dirty Dancing lift. The photo was rightly hashtagged #NoOnePutsDrogonInTheCorner.
The Romance We All Wish Would Happen
Fans have been rooting for Brienne of Tarth and Jaime Lannister to get together since season three when he gave up his hand to protect her. They're both fierce fighters, they're both knighted, and they're both incredibly good looking. What more do you need, George R.R. Martin?
If we don't get to see them hook up in the show at least we have this behind-the-scenes photo showing that the pair are best of friends off-screen.
Two Queens Of The North
This behind-the-scenes photo of Lyanna Mormont and Sansa Stark is everything the world needed and more. While the attention may always be on Sansa, Lyanna stole the hearts of every fierce female around the world since she appeared on the show in season six.
Over the course of the eight seasons, the women of the North have slowly become the best parts of the show. Seeing a queen of the North and a lady of the North get together is the power couple we all really wanted.
Alfie Allen Left A Touching Message For Theon
Theon Greyjoy was one of the characters that fans had a serious love-hate relationship with. He did some awful things (kidnapping Bran, betraying the Starks, abandoning Yara) but he also spent a lot of his time trying to redeem himself. Saving Sansa, returning for Yara, and eventually dying to protect Bran allowed Theon to die in peace.
Actor Alfie Allen knows that Theon has affected Game of Thrones fans, and posted this behind-the-scenes snap thanking the fans and saying it's been an honor to play the character.
Justice For Shereen
One of the most heartbreaking scenes in Game of Thrones came when the Red Woman convinced Stannis to let her burn his daughter, Shereen, alive. It made everyone, including Ser Davos, absolutely despise the Red Woman. So we're not entirely sure how Carice van Houten had the audacity to post this photo with Kerry Ingram-Kelly with a box of quick start fire in her hand.
The only good thing about this throwback is that it's a reminder that it's just a show.
Bella Is Waiting To Encounter A Giant
Bella Ramsey clearly knows how to take advantage of a joke when she sees it. The Lyanna Mormont actress probably waited months to finally post this photo of her in an airport with the perfect sign. She was sitting on this photo and it was well worth it.
Game of Thrones fans are cutthroat and would definitely figure out from this simple photo that Lyanna's destiny was to go down swinging and take a full-blown giant Wight with her.
We Can Kind Of See The Resemblance
After being apart for so many scenes, Daenerys and Jon Snow have finally been stomping White Walkers and taking names together. Having a new on-set partner is probably pretty exciting. Emilia Clarke proved that when she posted this hilarious photo of her and Kit Harrington and captioned it "family portrait."
The pair spent nearly 11 weeks together on set for just the Battle of Winterfell so it's understandable that they'd have to travel into town and let off some steam.
Beard Brothers Unite
The two mightiest beards of the show are on full display on Kristofer Hivju's Instagram. Tormund and Ser Davos have two of the best beards on the show. Once they both arrived in Winterfell together, we got to see their beards together in all their mighty glory.
Both Tormund and Ser Davos managed to make it through the Battle of Winterfell so that means we'll still get to see some more of these two beards.
Sansa Adopted Lady And That's All That Matters
Okay, this might not be a behind-the-scenes photo from the Game of Thrones set but it still warms our heart. Sophie Turner, the actress who plays Sansa, actually adopted her direwolf Lady in real life. This dog was used to play Lady all the way back in season one, episode two.
Even though the only direwolf we see now is Ghost (and yes, Ghost survived the Battle of Winterfell) we're perfectly content seeing these personal photos of Lady too.
