Products You May Like
George R.R. Martin has spoken up about that jaw-dropping Game of Thrones Easter egg in the latest episode of Westworld, and, in addition to clarifying some of the details regarding his involvement in the show’s nod to Drogon’s fate, the author has also shared some key intel about his own long-lost Thrones cameo, including a photo of him in costume from the set!
On his blog, Martin wrote that while Westworld showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have indicated that it was his idea to do the mini-crossover, which featured the beloved Game of Thrones dragon as he was about to be hacked up and sold off by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, he can only take partial credit for it.
“I had no idea this particular moment was coming until I caught it on HBO… but back during Westworld‘s season one, I did suggest to Jonah that, seeing as how the original Westworld film featured a Medieval World, the TV version could easily have a Westeros World,” he wrote. “I never wanted a full crossover, never thought that Westworld‘s hosts should adventure in Westeros World as they have in Samurai World and War World… but a brief scene or two could have been fun, and would have been in keeping with the Delos concept. And, hey, I even suggested that they could bring back actors from GOT, characters we had killed. The hosts die almost weekly, after all.”
Westworld‘s Latest Episode Finally Revealed the Fate of Game of Thrones‘ Drogon
Martin added that if he had been in Los Angeles during the episode’s taping, he might’ve even participated in the bit — after all, he has done several cameos in the past. In fact, Martin wrote a list of some of his on-screen appearances past, including TV’s Beauty and the Beast and some more recent screen time on Z Nation and Sharknado 3, and he went on to explain why audiences never got to see him on-screen in Game of Thrones. As many fans are already aware, Martin did film a cameo scene for Game of Thrones‘ original, as-yet-unearthed pilot, but after several key cast members were replaced and nearly the entire episode was re-shot, the footage of him was left to the editing room floor.
As Martin explained in his latest blog entry, he would have appeared “as a guest at Dany’s wedding to Khal Drogo. They gave me an enormous hat and really big balls, which might have been some sort of commentary.” If that image description is difficult to picture, not to worry. Martin also decided to gift the world with some photo proof of his wild look.
That’s … quite a costume. Unfortunately for all of us, the reason we’re just now seeing this is that although some bits of reel from the original shoot were recycled for the pilot which did air, that scene in particular initially featured actress Tamzin Merchant as Daenerys Targaryen, and Emilia Clarke eventually stepped into that role. So, it had to be re-done, and A Song of Ice and Fire lovers everywhere were deprived of the joy of seeing their favorite author dressed up like this.
In other news, although Martin was notably unavailable to shoot an appearance in Game of Thrones‘ otherwise very cameo-happy final season, as he continued work on The Winds of Winter, he also wrote that he did attempt to secure a cameo in some of the other seasons, beyond the scrapped pilot.
“I wanted to be a severed head on the walls of the Red Keep next to Ned Stark (and David & Dan, ideally), but our budget was not so robust first season, and those severed heads are damned expensive. I also campaigned to die horribly at the Red Wedding, which seemed only fair since I was responsible for it, but it was felt that my presence in that powerful, wrenching, bloody scene might have taken the viewers out of the moment. Fair enough. And not wrong,” he wrote. “One thing led to another and I never did appear in a cameo in GOT, but that’s cool. I’m a writer, not an actor… or even an extra. And standing around in costume for all those hours in Morocco while we filmed Dany & Drogo’s nuptials gave me a helluva backache.”
Here’s hoping he gets to suit up in some House Targaryen gear for House of the Dragon.
Game of Thrones is available to stream on HBO.