Fascinating Facts From Behind The Scenes Of Game Of Thrones You Probably Didn't Know

Who pranked who? Who got stuck to a toilet? We have the answers.

Elana

• Published in Interesting
• October 30, 2020

Even if you are one of the minority who hasn't watched even a single episode of Game of Thrones, chances are you're quite familiar with the basics of the fantasy drama TV series that was derived from a series of novels by George R. R. Martin. It was filmed all over the world and aired on HBO from April of 2011 until May of 2019.

It may have concluded the airing of new episodes awhile ago now, but that hasn't stopped the fandom. Some people are still fresh to the series while others just appreciate it indefinitely.

That's how we know you'll be stoked to learn these fun and fascinating (and sometimes funny) behind the scenes facts from Game of Thrones.

Out of 60 Episodes for the entire series, only five episodes don't involve death.

Peter Dinklage almost didn't play the role of Tyrion Lannister because he thought the character might make him look foolish.

He later said: “They told me about his complexity, the fact that he wasn’t a hero or a villain, that he was a womanizer and a drinker, and they painted a flawed and beautiful portrait of him, so I signed on.”

At the end of Emilia Clarke's official audition she asked if there was anything else she could do. Benioff jokingly suggested she dance.

She did the funky chicken and the robot.

Which brings us to one of the best behind the scenes fun facts: David Benioff and Dan Weiss (the co-creaters and showrunners of GoT) loved to play pranks.

Their favorite target, however, was definitely Alfie Allen. One of their best pranks involved sending Allen a fake script in which he died but was still on the show. They then called Allen and asked him how he felt about "being a naked zombie with no dialogue."

Unphased, Allen said, "sure, no problem," before figuring out they were messing with him.

There's a pilot for Game Of Thrones... that never aired! It was considered a total disaster.

In and interview with Variety, Benioff said: “We got everything wrong on a very basic level with the writing of it.”

They even managed to omit the major plot point that Jaime and Cersei were brother and sister.

Since nearly every episode inolved death you can bet the mortality rate is high. Did you know how high?

150,996 deaths, and that count includes both the speaking characters and lives lost in every battle of the series. Whoo!

The Math Nerds

Mathematicians used math to prove that Tyrion Lannister is the series true protagonist. Not only is his character the most interconnected with other characters in the series but he appeared in every single episode of seasons 2 and 5!

Filming season 3 was NO joke

Actor Kit Harrington, who played Jon Snow, broke his leg on his free time. Filming the season with a main actor partially incapacitated presented some unique obstacles to overcome. At several points they had to use stand in actors in wigs to film everything they needed.

In the season 1 scene where Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke's character) eats a stallion heart, Emilia Clarke experienced a technical complication from being covered in fake blood.

All that sticky prop blood interfered during a bathroom break, gluing Emilia's BUTT to the TOILET SEAT. The whole day was less than fun for Clarke, who said eating the fake heart was equally disgusting. In an interview she said:

"They promised me that it would taste similar to a gummy bear, and it definitely didn’t. The best way to describe it is sort of a congealed, jam kind of thing. On the outtakes, there will be me heaving into a bucket. It’s such a reflex, when you taste something that’s just so revolting. You kind of instantly just want to get rid of it. It’s safe to say that I didn’t eat lunch that day."

The night before Kit's audition for the role of Jon Snow he got into a fist fight at McDonalds.

He performed the audition with a black eye, and he credits that for helping him snag the role.

Sophie Turner, like the Real Life Queen she is, adopted the ill-fated Direwolf, Lady!

Immediately following season 1, Lady's trainer was looking for a home for the direwolf and it was Turner who ended up adopting her.

The Man, the Myth, the Legend. George R.R. Martin has been working on the sixth book in his series (The Winds of Winter) for over eight years.

For now, it's supposedly set to be released in 2021 and then a seventh book is even planned! Martin has said in the past he was surprised the series opted to go ahead of the books.

However, the president of programming at HBO, Casey Bloys rather definitively shot down the mere thought that any prequel, sequel, season 9, or reboot of Game of Thrones would ever come to fruition.

Elana