Yahoo News How the original Game of Thrones pilot episode nearly doomed the show
Game of Thrones wasn't always a guaranteed hit for HBO. In fact, the original pilot episode was an enormously expensive disaster.
We are now just days away from the return of Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon, but there was a time when it didn't look like the bloody history of Westeros was going to become one of the biggest shows on television. In fact, based on the dismal response to the first Game of Thrones pilot episode, HBO had a potential disaster on its hands.
David Benioff and D. B. Weiss's adaptation of George RR Martin's fantasy books A Song of Ice and Fire got off to a less than auspicious start. They teamed up with filmmaker Tom McCarthy — who would later direct the Oscar-winning Spotlight — for the episode that would become 'Winter is Coming'.
That's the title of the first episode of the actual Game of Thrones series, but the hour we all saw is very different to that original pilot. The team's first go was so bad that Benioff and Weiss's buddy Craig Mazin — the man behind Chernobyl and The Last of Us — described it on the Scriptnotes podcast as "a complete piece of s***". Not mincing his words there.
Why did the Game of Thrones pilot go so wrong?
It all started in 2006 when Benioff and Weiss met with George RR Martin, having been wowed by the books. The author quizzed them on who they thought Jon Snow's real mother might be and their answer was good enough that they got his blessing. The showrunners then approached HBO, who acquired the rights in March 2006 and started developing the show.
From there, it took the duo almost four years to get a pilot episode made. With McCarthy on board and most of the cast who would go on to the finished show, they spent a month on location in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco to film the pilot.
Read more: I Rewatched Game Of Thrones' Pilot 13 Years After Its Premiere, And I Need To Rethink My Favorite Characters (CinemaBlend, 7-min read)
In 2010, after years of work, Benioff and Weiss showed the pilot to some Hollywood buddies, including Mazin. On the Scriptnotes podcast, Benioff reflected: "Watching them watch that original pilot was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I mean, it’s probably like appendicitis." Mazin told the guys they had a "massive problem".
Benioff would also admit to Variety that he and Weiss "got everything wrong on a very basic level with the writing of it". Specifically, none of the friends at the screening realised that Cersei and Jaime Lannister were siblings — somewhat diminishing the impact of the final scene involving Bran Stark discovering the couple together. To say things were bad would be an understatement.
Read more: Lena Headey Wanted a "Better Death" for Cersei on Game of Thrones (Harper's Bazaar)
In March 2010, though, HBO decided to greenlight Game of Thrones, stipulating that big changes would have to be made. They wanted the pilot episode reworked in order for it to open their new, hugely expensive fantasy show in the best possible way. They'd already spent a lot of money and they wanted to see some return on that investment.
How did they fix the Game of Thrones pilot episode?
Seasoned TV director Tim Van Patten — acclaimed for his work on HBO shows like The Sopranos and The Wire — was drafted in to replace McCarthy. Several key roles were recast, with Emilia Clarke replacing Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys Targaryen and Michelle Fairley stepping in for Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn Stark.
Benioff and Weiss estimated that 90% of the pilot was reshot in 2010, with Malta replacing Morocco for the scenes of Daenerys' wedding to Khal Drogo. The replacement wedding scene robbed the world of a George RR Martin cameo that had previously been filmed. We'll probably never see it.
Some scenes hit the cutting room floor as well. The death of Jon Arryn, the Hand of the King, is one of the show's inciting incidents, but happens off screen in the finished show. In the pilot, though, they filmed a death scene involving hand-stamping and spilled ink that actor John Standing described as "lunatic" in a 2016 interview.
The finished episode, which aired on HBO in 2011, is one of the greatest opening hours of a TV show ever made. Mazin was so pleased when he saw it that he told Benioff and Weiss they had pulled off "the biggest rescue in Hollywood history". Based on what we know about the pilot, it's hard to disagree.
Did Game of Thrones learn its lesson from the original pilot?
Well, history somewhat repeated itself in 2019. Jane Goldman had been working with Martin on one of many potential spin-off series to follow up the completed show, entitled Bloodmoon — though Martin liked to call it The Long Night.
The series would tell a story set 10,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones, happening in an era known as the Age of Heroes. It would've shown the foundation of the great houses we're familiar with from Game of Thrones, as well as the original "Long Night" in which the White Walkers attacked Westeros the first time around.
Read more: How House of the Dragon's characters are related to Game of Thrones (Yahoo Entertainment)
SJ Clarkson — who would later continue her rotten run of luck as the director of Madame Web — was hired as director for the pilot and a huge cast was assembled, led by Naomi Watts as a socialite with a dark secret. The likes of John Simm, Naomi Ackie, and Miranda Richardson were also cast along with Jamie Campbell Bower, who had been one of the actors recast after the original Thrones pilot.
In September 2019, Martin revealed that the pilot was in post-production and said he hoped to see a cut in the near future. But in October of that year, HBO scrapped the project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO "wasn’t thrilled with the final cut of the Watts-led pilot and asked for changes in edits before scrapping the entire thing". In 2020, HBO exec Casey Bloys said the show "did not quite gel".
Read more: Naomi Watts hadn’t seen Game Of Thrones until prequel role came up (PA Media)
HBO is being careful with how it chooses to follow up its golden goose. House of the Dragon, of course, is an enormous success story and is now set to dominate screens again with its second season. But the original array of spin-offs has been whittled down over the years, with the Jon Snow sequel series very much dead for now.
Watch: Trailer for House of the Dragon season 2
But there is plenty more Westeros to come. There's a series in the works based on Aegon Targaryen's conquest — prior to the events of House of the Dragon — as well as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, inspired by one of Martin's novella series.
None of this enormous pop cultural empire would exist without that original Game of Thrones pilot. One day, we might get to see it. But, presumably, Benioff and Weiss would love to yell "dracarys" and see the whole thing disappear forever in a blast of dragon fire.
House of the Dragon returns to Sky Atlantic and NOW on Monday, 17 June.
