Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon

by James Hibberd

  Gillen pointed out the full-circle perfection of Littlefinger’s death. The character’s overambitious rise to power was fueled by the moment, decades earlier, when Ned Stark’s brother Brandon defeated him while dueling for Catelyn Stark’s hand. Brandon left Littlefinger with a cut along his torso as a reminder of his defeat, a scar Baelish forever kept hidden by wearing high-necked tunics. Then Catelyn’s daughter condemned him to die while Brandon’s namesake nephew, Bran, provided the evidence leading to his doom—including the dagger Baelish once gave to an assassin to use when he tried to kill Bran in season one.

  AIDAN GILLEN: As soon as he walked into that room and Arya produced the dagger, he knew the game was up. It was an emotional farewell and a humiliating position to be in. He was back in the position that had been a driver for him—the rejection of Catelyn Stark, the humiliation by Brandon Stark.

  There had to be more feelings for Sansa than I let on. But I don’t want to say too much about that. I want to preserve that. I don’t want to lay my cards on the table.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Walks and Talks

  Game of Thrones actors had no idea how their storylines were going to end. So when a date was set for a read-through of the final six episodes in October 2017, the cast grew anxious. The production was preparing to send them a secure link to the top secret scripts. At last they would know the conclusion of the story they had spent a decade telling the world.

  “As the seasons have gone on, we’ve all thought: How’s it going to end?” Peter Dinklage said. “Who’s going to be alive? If you die, how do you die? It can drive you mad.”

  And the cast weren’t the only ones who were nervous.

  DAVID BENIOFF (showrunner): We knew when our script coordinator sent the scripts out to the cast. We knew exactly what minute they sent them. Then you’re just waiting for the actors to email.

  DAN WEISS (showrunner): When you’ve been working on something for ten years, knowing you’re writing the last episodes is harder because there’s a lot more weight and pressure on those scenes. “Is a line right?” seems more important. On the other hand, the motivations behind the scenes are things you’ve been thinking about for five years, so the foundations in your mind are stronger for what you’re putting on paper.

  JOE DEMPSIE (Gendry): The scripts came the Thursday before the Sunday of the read-through. I was just idly checking my emails at the gym and then they were there.

  EMILIA CLARKE (Daenerys Targaryen): I was on a plane coming back from a holiday, and I had this little tiny break between Star Wars and Game of Thrones and I thought, “I bet when I’m on my break they’re going to send me the fucking scripts and I’ll have to read them and feel sad.” I did the whole holiday, and as soon as I landed in Heathrow, boop, they’re there, perfect. I turned to my best mate who I was with and was like, “Oh my God!” and completely flipped out. “I gotta go! I gotta go!” And they’re like, “You got to get your bags!”

  JOE DEMPSIE: Everybody’s WhatsApp [the cast’s private group chat] sparked to life: “They’re here!” Everybody was saying, “Don’t ruin anything for me!” But Jacob admitted he checked episode six first to see if he survived.

  JACOB ANDERSON (Grey Worm): I had a certain level of suspicion. It’s the end and you’re going to find out the fates of everyone in the show. “What’s mine? Where am I gonna be?” And I didn’t really want it to end. This is the first time the scripts arrived that I didn’t want to read them because then I would have to accept that it’s over.

  PETER DINKLAGE (Tyrion Lannister): This was the first time ever that I didn’t skip to the end [to see if Tyrion survived].

  ISAAC HEMPSTEAD WRIGHT (Bran Stark): At first I genuinely thought it was a joke script, that David and Dan sent one to everyone with their own character ending up on the Iron Throne. Yeah, good one. Then I realized it was real. I just wanted to shout, “King, motherfuckers!” in the street.

  LIAM CUNNINGHAM (Davos Seaworth): I was in New York, and the fucking things wouldn’t open—the double extra security! Everybody thought I was a Luddite that I couldn’t open them. Later I got to Belfast and went, “Here you go!” and they couldn’t open it either. So it wasn’t my fault.

  MAISIE WILLIAMS (Arya Stark): I hadn’t realized we received them. I was hanging out with friends having time off and Sophie was like, “Have you read them?” She said, “Whatever you do, you have to skip to this episode, this scene first.” It was the Arya-and-Gendry scene.

  SOPHIE TURNER (Sansa Stark): I did! I’m all, “Read it, this is awesome,” and she was very happy with that. We always end up spoiling it for each other.

  Gwendoline Christie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau were also surprised that their characters hooked up in the final season.

  GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE (Brienne of Tarth): I received a text from Nikolaj just laughing. I sent back a being-sick emoji. How modern.

  As the showrunners continued to watch their email and wait, several cast members felt abruptly inspired to take long walks.

  DAN WEISS: Why aren’t they writing?! Does that mean they like it? Does that mean they hate it?

  DAVID BENIOFF: Sophie was the first one to write, so she got credit for racing through all six scripts in like an hour or something.

  SOPHIE TURNER: You have so many expectations of what it’s going to be and how it’s going to end. I’d thought up a hundred different scenarios of what will happen. When you’re actually reading it, and partly because David and Dan are pranksters, you’re thinking, “This can’t be true! Is this the way it really ends? Oh my God oh my God oh my God.”

  EMILIA CLARKE: This is going to sound really sad, but how I hope a mega-fan approaches watching the final season is how I approached reading the final season. I was like, okay, I got myself situated, I got my cup of tea—I had to physically prepare the space—and then read them. The effect it had on me was profound. I left the house and took my keys and phone and walked back with blisters on my feet because I walked for hours.

  SOPHIE TURNER: Afterward I felt numb and I had to take a walk for hours and hours. And I cried a lot. It wasn’t anything in particular, just that it came to an end. But I thought it was an awesome way to end the show.

  GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: If you’re lucky enough to get to season eight, you expect to die on the first page. The very worst-case scenario is dying off-screen. Every couple of pages I kept thinking I was dead. It’s an emotional thing; I put my heart and soul into this project and had thrown myself into it physically as well, which had been incredibly challenging. There were also a few times reading them that I blushed very intensely. It was a powerful emotion to read some of the things that were occurring. I had to go for a very long walk, and I had lots of questions.

  The cast also felt the weight like never before of knowing spoilers. They held the pop culture nuclear codes that the world wanted access to, and they were worried about saying the wrong thing—even to each other.

  JOE DEMPSIE: There were moments where you didn’t trust yourself to have that in your brain. You were in possession of something millions of people wanted to know. It was such a bizarre feeling, like being a spy and having a briefcase full of secrets.

  EMILIA CLARKE: People would say, “Hey, dude, what’s up?” “Nothing, what’s up with you?” “Done any good reading lately? . . .” Then you got paranoid about putting anything in text form.

  Actors who discovered their characters did not survive to the very end had varied reactions to their fates.

  IAIN GLEN (Jorah Mormont): For eight years, you go, “Please-please . . .” You just want to stay in the party, you just want to stay on board. This was the season to [get killed off], if you’re going to go. It’s a heroic and satisfying demise [for Ser Jorah]. Dan and David were sweetly nervous about everyone’s reaction, and their instinct is you’ll be upset if you go. So the first thing I did was I emailed them and told them how much I loved the scripts.

  CONLETH HILL (Varys): At the time, nothi
ng could console me. I kept thinking, “What’d I do wrong?” You couldn’t help feeling that you failed in some way, that you hadn’t lived up to some expectation that you didn’t know about. I don’t think anybody who hasn’t been through it can identify with it. They think, “What’s all the fuss about? We’re all finishing anyway.” But you take it personally; you can’t help it. With a bit of perspective, you go, “Oh, it’s a great way to go, it’s noble and for the good.” With hindsight, I’m okay, but I really was inconsolable.

  DAVE HILL (co-producer): Of course, some actors were like, “I wanted to be king or queen at the end,” or would want a ten-page monologue for their character. But they all received it well.

  And then there was Kit Harington’s reaction—or lack thereof.

  KIT HARINGTON (Jon Snow): Emilia and I sat next to each other on the plane on the way to Belfast. I told her I hadn’t read them.

  EMILIA CLARKE: Oh, God. That literally sums up Kit and my friendship. “Boy! Would you?! Seriously? You’re just not? . . .”

  KIT HARINGTON: What’s the point of reading it to myself in my own head when I can listen to the [rest of the cast at the table read] do it and find out with my friends?

  DAN WEISS: “Kit’s not writing us. . . . Fuck. Does he hate it? If he hates it does that mean we got it wrong?” We spent a lot of time thinking about his character.

  Then we saw him on the day of the table read. We said: “So?”

  KIT HARINGTON: I walked into the room going, “I haven’t read it, don’t tell me. . . .”

  DAN WEISS: He was like: “I want to experience it the first time in this room.” Which was a huge relief, because if he had read it and hadn’t said anything, that probably meant at the very least he felt strong ambivalence.

  KIT HARINGTON: I became a kind of litmus test, because they were looking to my reactions to things. It made the day really fun.

  PETER DINKLAGE: I should have thought of doing that too, because it was such a visceral experience.

  MAISIE WILLIAMS: Before the table read, everybody was talking about episode three. Miguel was like, “Have you read the script yet?” And I was like, “No.” And he’s like, “Oh, I can’t tell you.” And I was like, “Are we fighting the wights? So does [the Night King] die? Who kills him? What happens?” And no one would say anything. Why is no one saying it?

  Over the course of two days, the Game of Thrones cast read through the season-eight scripts in a conference room.

  CARICE VAN HOUTEN (Melisandre): It’s like coming back to school. You’re seeing all your friends again. This was coming back for the last time. When different cast members met their demise, everybody cheered each other and showed love and applauded. When somebody had their final moments, the whole room would erupt to show support for that person.

  KIT HARINGTON: When Arya dropped the Night King and plunged in the dagger, it got a huge fucking cheer.

  RORY McCANN (Sandor “the Hound” Clegane): It was quite emotional. You’re seeing deaths and all happening in front of you and seeing people get upset. When the so-called Clegane Bowl started, I brought a trumpet with me and blew it right before I said one of my last lines.

  Then the cast got to the most pivotal moment in the final season: Jon Snow putting a knife through the heart of his lover, Daenerys Targaryen. The series-finale script reads:

  Standing before the Iron Throne, Dany steps forward and kisses the man she loves. A perfect kiss, an expression of pure love and passion.

  We push in on them until we’re tight on their faces—their eyes closed, his hand behind her head, her hand on his cheek.

  Dany’s eyes open suddenly as she draws a sharp breath. Jon’s eyes open as well, already filling with tears. For a moment, neither moves, as if moving will make this real.

  In a wider angle, we see Jon with his hand still on the hilt of the dagger he just lodged in Dany’s heart. Her strength leaves her and she collapses to the marble; he keeps her in his arms as she falls, kneeling down to the floor beside her.

  He looks down at what he’s done. Terrible. And necessary. He hopes for one last moment with her.

  KIT HARINGTON: Emilia sat opposite at the table. I was reading it. I looked at her and there was a moment of, “No, no . . . ,” and she was going [nods sadly].

  Harington can be seen in HBO’s documentary Game of Thrones: The Last Watch pushing away from the table, tearing up, and covering his mouth with his hand.

  MAISIE WILLIAMS: He looked up, and Emilia was, like, nodding, and he had a little tear. Honestly, it was a relief. Everything you’ve been waiting for is finally coming to an end, and it felt right. I saved episode six for the read-through, so I didn’t know the end either.

  KIT HARINGTON: I cried at two points. One was the scene with Jon and Dany, which I found very emotional, and then again at the very end. Every season, you read at the end of the last script, “End of Season 1” or “End of Season 2.” This read, “End of Game of Thrones.” And you go, “Fuck, okay, it’s really happening.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  The Longest Night

  Winterfell’s courtyard was covered with snow, dirt, and blood. Wood logs burned in fire pits, throwing off heat and smoke. Stiff corpses bearing all manner of gruesome mortal injuries lay in crumpled piles. From the castle walls, the Stark banners hung limply.

  I mounted the slippery stairs and walked along the castle’s creaking ramparts, passing through cramped battlements. Near the top of the main gate, there were gaps in the parapet wall offering a dizzying view of the battlefield stretched out below. On the field were hulking trebuchets, deep trenches lined with wood stakes, and hundreds of uniformed men preparing to fight. My breath was icy. The freezing rain had begun again. Somewhere an assistant director yelled for extras to reset on their marks: “This is not a tea party, c’mon!”

  Ser Davos walked past. “I signed up for a character piece,” he sighed.

  During the first season of Game of Thrones, a Winterfell set was constructed in the middle of a sheep field. The castle was impressive, but in 2017, the production rebuilt it at nearly three times its original size for the final season and the great battle between the living and the dead. You could now wander in any direction on the grounds and maintain the illusion that you were at the Stark home. It was the ultimate medieval fantasy playground, young George R. R. Martin’s turtle castle brought to life.

  DEBORAH RILEY (production designer): Part of expanding Winterfell was being able to show spaces that had never been shown before. We never understood where the food came from, where the beer came from, where the bread came from—all of those back-of-the-house activities. I was actually able to understand it more as a living, breathing castle.

  But had anybody understood in season one where the show would be heading, Winterfell would have been put in a different spot and not a boggy sheep farm. Just making it so soldiers could run back and forth, let alone bringing in machinery, without being knee-deep in mud, was a huge ordeal.

  Closer to Belfast, there was another enormous Thrones set that reconstructed several streets in the Old Town of Dubrovnik. That was built for the other final-season battle, the one set in King’s Landing, and it was impressive in a different way—a mini-maze of cobblestone streets that looked precisely like their Croatian counterparts. It was necessary to make a meticulous copy of an existing city because, as showrunner Dan Weiss pointed out, “we cannot blow up Dubrovnik.”

  The showrunners had long imagined these two battles for the show’s final season: one war against the dead, and another where the survivors turned on each other. Both were unthinkable on the show’s previous budget and schedule. The production also spent nine months filming six episodes instead of the six months they normally took to shoot ten episodes. To put that in context, principal photography on most Hollywood films typically takes around three or four months.

  When you factored in the amount of time the Thrones team spent fil
ming the final season, the intensity of staging the action scenes, the global pressure to deliver a satisfying ending, and the show’s brutal outdoor working conditions, the obstacles faced by the show’s cast and crew during season eight were, as Nikolaj Coster-Waldau put it, “unheard of.”

  “A scene that would have been a one-day shoot two years ago was a five-day shoot,” Kit Harington said. “They wanted to get it right. They wanted to shoot it every single way so they had options. And because it was the finale, after eight seasons most scenes are emotional. Consistently having to have your emotions that high, it became fucking exhausting.”

  The production’s biggest challenge—not just for season eight, but throughout the entire show—was the episode titled “The Long Night.” The threat of the White Walkers had been teased since the pilot’s opening scene. Everybody working on Thrones knew the Winterfell battle had to pay off years of anticipation.

  DAVID BENIOFF (showrunner): We’ve been building toward this since the very beginning, and it’s the living against the dead, and you couldn’t do that in a twelve-minute sequence.