THE cast and crew of Game of Thrones have lifted the lid on the most chaotic moments behind the HBO epic.
The fantasy series – despite its divisive final season – remains one of the most acclaimed and cinematic TV shows of all time.
However, in new book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Untold Story of the Epic Series, the team reveal the early days of production were frought with issues.
In fact, the pilot episode was panned by TV executives, who demanded a string of major changed before agreeing to comission the show.
Showrunner David Benioff admitted: “At first it seemed to us like it was going well, but that was because we didn’t know any better.
Co-showrunner Dan Weiss agreed: “As we went on, the cracks turned into bigger cracks, which turned into fissures. You started to feel the wheels coming off by the time we got to Morocco.”
The scenes shot in Morocco included the dastardly Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) selling off Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) to the Dothraki in exchange for military support.
Iain Glen, who played Jorah Mormont, said of shooting the arranged wedding: “It was a bit ragged and, in some ways, ill conceived, and no one had great conviction.
“Since the wedding was shot at night, quite a lot of money had been spent on seeing absolutely f**k all.”
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In fact, HBO bosses were supposedly unimpressed with most of the shots from Morocco, claiming not enough had been made of the stunning locations.
Michael Lombardo, former HBO programming president, said: “There were some concerns about whether we were getting enough wide shots. Are we getting the coverage we need?
“We hired the best costume designer and the best art director and shot this in Northern Ireland and Morocco, yet there was very little scope. I remember the quote was, ‘We could have shot this in Burbank.'”
Echoing the sentiment, Glen added: “Some bigwig at HBO said, ‘Why the f**k did we go to Morocco? You can’t see f**king diddly squat, we could have shot it in a car park!’”
The comments are the only admission from the cast and crew.
According to author George RR Martin, one of Jason Momoa’s sex scenes was completely dereailed by a randy horse.
Game of Thrones is available to stream on NOW TV.
