Game of Thrones' Original Pilot Bombed: "Nobody Knew What They Were Doing"
The original Game of Thrones pilot filmed in 2009 had so many issues, it had to be reshot.
The episode was never shown to the public, but stars of the series are telling all about how "ridiculous" it was in a new book.
Legend has it the original pilot for Game of Thrones was such a disaster it was never aired. In fact, the version that ultimately debuted on HBO in 2011 was the product of several rewrites, recasts, and replacements in the crew following initial production in 2009.
Now, we're getting firsthand accounts of the catastrophe from the cast members themselves. In a new book by James Hibberd, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, which gives an all-encompassing, behind-the-scenes look at the fantasy series, stars spill on the chaos that was the first first episode of GoT.
"Nobody knew what they were doing or what the hell this was," Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) recalled in an excerpt shared by Entertainment Weekly. "During King Robert’s arrival I remember finding the whole thing ridiculous. The absurdity of doing this parallel universe with these very noble men. It's a very fine balance between being serious and believing it and just being cosplayers. There was certainly not a sense that this was going to be some game-changer for anyone. But we had a lot of fun."
Lena Headey, a.k.a. Cersei Lannister thought she "looked like a Vegas showgirl in the [original] pilot—furs and massive hair, like a medieval Dolly Parton." But she loved it.
Things apparently got worse when production moved from Northern Ireland to Morocco, where Daenerys Targaryen's wedding to Khal Drogo was filmed. "It was a bit ragged and, in some ways, ill conceived, and no one had great conviction," Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont) said. "Since the wedding was shot at night, quite a lot of money had been spent on seeing absolutely f—k-all."
He also recalled that the scope of the Dothraki setting in the pilot was lacking. "Some bigwig at HBO said, 'Why the f--- did we go to Morocco? You can't see f---ing diddly squat, we could have shot it in a car park!'"
Yikes.
When first-time showrunners David Benioff showed the pilot to other people, they got less-than-ideal reactions. Producer Craig Mazin told them, "You guys have a massive problem."
Eventually, the creative team met to point out what to revise and how to do it. HBO saw the magic behind the flaws and ordered 10 episodes, including a reshot pilot. Emilia Clarke replaced Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys Targaryen. Michelle Fairley replaced the original actress cast as Catelyn Stark who refused to relocate to Northern Ireland to film.
Harry Lloyd, who played Viserys Targaryen, put it best: "We were very lucky to be given a $10 million-dollar rehearsal."
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