George RR Martin, being a skilled writer, knows how to keep his fans on their toes when going about all this Game of Thrones business. With the TV shows' and novels' plots highly differing from one another, nobody really knows what to expect from this epics' ending. The wait is almost over now, as HBO recently announced that the show's final season would air in April 2019, with only six episodes to finish off the fantastic journey. However, while we wait for the chance to meet the Game of Thrones characters for one last time, what better way to spend your days than recall and appreciate what's already been done by our favorite popular actors? With many lists and funny memes out of the way, we can all collectively move on to more factual information. And sure enough, Got interesting facts are aplenty!
From scoop on the Game of Thrones cast to spoofs; be sure to check out the facts below and don't forget to comment and vote on your favorites!
#21 Actors With Multiple Roles
While there are some characters played by multiple actors in the series, there is also an actor who played multiple characters. Dean-Charles Chapman played a minor role of Martyn Lannister in Season 3, but was later cast as Tommen Baratheon for later seasons.
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#22 GoT In Numbers
Executive Producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said the production of the show is a massive undertaking. It lasts the entire year and they shoot the show like a ten-hour movie. Season 5 alone was shot in five countries, on 151 sets, for 240 days, having 166 cast members, over 1,000 crew members and over 5,000 extras.
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#23 Unfilmable Series
George R.R. Martin was inspired to write the novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" after years of writing for restrictive television budgets, and deliberately wrote the series to be nearly unfilmable. After the success of "The Lord of The Rings" Martin was approached to license the novels into a series of films, one project was proposed using only Daenerys' story line, and another project proposed only including the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters. Martin declined every film offer, reasoning that his books contained too much story to work as films, and the box office failure of "The Golden Compass" made him concerned that if the first film was not a success the series would be cancelled.
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#24 Improved Characters
George R.R. Martin has stated that several of the show's characters are improvements over his own versions in the books in both writing and performance. He specifically mentioned Natalia Tena as Osha and praised Sibel Kekilli as Shae, even going as far as saying that "her Shae was better than [his] Shae".
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#25 A Heart Of A Stallion
One of the most iconic scenes in season 1, where Daenerys eats a heart of a stallion at Vaes Dothrak, was actually less brutal and more funny in real life. Actress who brought Dany to life, Emilia Clarke, says that while eating the heart was absolutely disgusting, and she was reaching for a bucket between each take, the funny part was her getting stuck to the toilet as she was covered in fake blood that was very sticky.
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#26 Gandalf's Sword
Fans of the series have spotted this hidden gem while looking for easter eggs. A replica of Gandalf's sword, Glamdring, from the "Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" trilogies is forged inside the Iron Throne. Sean Bean (Eddard "Ned" Stark) played Boromir in the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. While it might seem like a cool nod to the beloved wizard, Gandalf's sword being part of the throne is only a matter of practicality. The people who created the throne used whatever molds were already available to them, and Glamdring happened to be one of them.
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#27 Ingenious Inventor
Kit Harington claims his ancestor is John Harington, a prominent figure in Queen Elizabeth I's court, as well as the inventor of the flush toilet. Kit also says his ancestor is the reason we sometimes refer to the toilet as "the john".
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#28 Ilyn Payne
Wilko Johnson, who played Ilyn Payne, retired after the second season because he was diagnosed with cancer. While Payne appears in subsequent novels, his role in the series was effectively replaced with Bronn (Jerome Flynn), who instead accompanies Jaime on later missions. In 2014, Johnson announced that he was cancer-free.
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#29 Royal Visitors
In June 2014, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the "Game of Thrones" set in Belfast as part of a three-day visit to Northern Ireland. Elizabeth was offered the chance to sit on the Iron Throne but declined, as the monarch of Great Britain is not supposed to sit on a foreign throne, even a fictional one. Some news sources claimed Elizabeth is a viewer of the series, though Maisie Williams remarked on the visit, "I did not get the impression she is a fan" as the Queen was unaware of her role in the show.
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#30 A Different Queen
The actor behind Melisandre, Carice van Houten, could've played Cersei Lannister. She was asked to audition for the role of the queen, but was unable to because she was filming "Intruders".
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#31 Interesting Coincidences
In the series, Charles Dance's character, Tywin Lannister, was previously married to a woman named Joanna, who died birthing Tyrion and with whom he had three children. In real life, Dance was previously married to a woman who was also named Joanna, and has three children.
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#32 The Real Age Of Jojen Reed
Thomas Brodie-Sangster was 22 when he was cast as 13-year-old Jojen Reed.
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#33 Purple Eyes
Daenerys had purple eyes in the books, but the contact lenses Emilia Clarke wore affected her performance so they were abandoned.
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#34 The Right Answer
Many people approached George R.R. Martin to produce a movie for his unfinished "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, but he refused them all, thinking that it would be too expensive to produce accurately. When the showrunners Benioff and D.B. Weiss told him that they wanted to make a series out of it, Martin asked them one question that sealed the show's fate. The mastermind behind the books' many twists and turns wanted to know who they thought Jon Snow's mother was. Benioff and D.B. Weiss's answer satisfied the author and he sold the rights to the book.
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#35 Popular Name
In the year 2012, around 160 baby girls in the U.S. were legally named "Khaleesi", after the character in the show, although it is not the character's name, Daenerys, but a title that is an equivalent of 'queen' in Dothraki language.
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#36 A Broken Ankle
Kit Harington broke his ankle in 2012 when he was locked out of his apartment building in London and fell while trying to climb to his flat. During season 3, the film crew had to figure out how to shoot around the injury, including the use of stand-ins in "Jon Snow wigs". Harington felt so guilty that he bought the production manager a bottle of whiskey.
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#37 The Stark Children
The Stark children were all aged up for the series. At the start of George R.R. Martin's novels, Robb Stark and Jon Snow are 14 years old, Sansa Stark is 11, Arya is 9, Bran is 7, and Rickon Stark is just 3 years old. At the start of the series, Robb and Jon are 17, Sansa is 13, Arya is 11, Bran is 10, and Rickon is 6.
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#38 Digital Wolves
The first season used Northern Inuit dogs, a type specifically bred for wolf-like appearance, to stand in for the direwolves (the Stark's house sigil). However, since direwolves are known to be much larger than normal wolves, real wolves were digitally composited into scenes for Season 2. This strained the budget and the schedule, which is why there are only a handful of scenes with Grey Wind (Robb Stark's wolf), Summer (Bran Stark's wolf) and Shaggydog (Rickon Stark's wolf); Ghost, who belongs to Jon Snow, is shown in brief glimpses.
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#39 Flexing To Get Ready
In the pilot episode as the trio are preparing for the King Robert's welcome, Alfie Allen, Richard Madden, and Kit Harington each tried to one-up each other in their shirtless scene by flexing and doing push-ups right before they went on camera. You decide who won!
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#40 Theme Song
Producer David Benioff wanted the theme song to be the Lannister song "The Rains of Castamere." Co-producer D.B. Weiss convinced him not to do it. And we're more than glad because the current theme song is absolutely iconic. Also, "The Rains" weren't exactly pushed to the side either, as the melody plays in many episodes, as well as performed by Icelandic avant-rock band, Sigur Rós, who had the fortune (or misfortune) to perform for King Joffrey during the Purple Wedding.
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