Game of Thrones is an American fantasy drama television series created by showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about the series!
1.It is an adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin’s series of fantasy novels, the first of which is titled A Game of Thrones.
2. 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 “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.
3. According to George R.R. Martin, “The Lord of the Rings” was a major influence behind his “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, which the television series is based on.
4. R.R. Martin may be a major fan of Tolkien’s work, but even he feels Lord of the Rings was missing some ritual and worship. (Middle-earth did have its own forms of religion, but nobody’s here to debate the finer points of the Silmarillion).
5. A principal inspiration for the novels is the English Wars of the Roses (1455–85) between the houses of Lancaster and York, reflected in Martin’s houses of Lannister and Stark.
6. Most of Westeros is reminiscent of High Medieval Western Europe, with its castles and knightly tournaments.
7. The scheming Cersei, for instance, calls to mind Isabella, the “she-wolf of France” (1295–1358). She and her family inspired Martin, as depicted in Maurice Druon’s historical novel series The Accursed Kings, in particular.
8. Other historical inspirations for elements of the series include Hadrian’s Wall (which became Martin’s great Wall), the legend of Atlantis (ancient Valyria), Byzantine “Greek fire” (“wildfire”), Icelandic sagas of the Viking Age (the Ironborn), the Mongol hordes (the Dothraki), and elements from the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) and the Italian Renaissance (c. 1400–1500).
9. “The Sopranos in Middle-earth” is the tagline that showrunner David Benioff jokingly suggested for Game of Thrones, referring to its intrigue-filled plot and dark tone combined with a fantasy setting that incorporates some magic and dragons.
10. According to David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the two came up with the idea of adapting George R. R. Martin’s novels to the screen in 2006, after Benioff began reading the first novel, A Game of Thrones. He called Weiss to share his excitement, and Weiss finished the thousand-page novel in “maybe 36 hours”.
11. They successfully pitched the series to HBO, and convinced Martin – a veteran screenwriter himself – in the course of a five-hour meeting in a restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard to agree to the idea. Benioff recalled they won Martin over with their answer to his question: “Who is Jon Snow’s mother?”
12. In the books, Martin only provided a few examples of the foreign tongues spoken on Game of Thrones. So the show’s producers enlisted linguist David J. Peterson, founder of the Language Creation Society, to develop Dothraki and Valyrian into full, grammatical languages that the show’s actors could actually speak.
13. The Dothraki language was created just for the show and contains more than 3,000 words.
14. Part of the language is named after and based on lines from The Officencharacter Dwight Shrute. It’s called the Shrutean Compound.
15. Despite having created the 3,000-word Dothraki dictionary, Peterson says fanboys still try to correct him on his pronunciation.
16. The Westerosi characters of Game of Thrones speak British English, often (but not consistently) with the accent of the English region whose geographic location corresponds to the character’s Westerosi region. For instance, Eddard Stark, as Warden of the North, speaks in actor Sean Bean’s native northern accent, while the southern lord Tywin Lannister speaks with a southern accent. Characters foreign to Westeros are often (although not always) played with a non-British accent.
17. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have added moments of sexual violence that were not in the books.
18. Martin has defended these moments, despite outrage from fans. The author says rape and sexual violence are a part of his story because they illustrate one of the series’ main themes, “that the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves.”
19. 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.
20. Showrunner David Benioff was already an accomplished Hollywood screenwriter before ‘Game of Thrones. Though he might not have been well-known before GoT, Benioff has written several hit movies,including Troy, 25th Hour and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. He’s also married to actress Amanda Peet.
21. Bryan Cogman, who initially was a script coordinator for the series, was promoted to a producer beginning with the fifth season. Cogman wrote at least one episode for the first five seasons, and is the only other writer to be in the writers’ room with Benioff and Weiss; besides Vanessa Taylor, who was a writer during the second and third seasons.
22. Dave Hill joined the writing staff for the fifth season after previously working as an assistant to Benioff and Weiss.
23. Martin is not in the writers’ room, but reads the script outlines and gives notes.
24. Benioff and Weiss sometimes assign various characters to each writer; for example, Cogman was assigned Arya for the fourth season. From there, the writers spend a few weeks writing a character outline, including what material from the novels to use and what the themes are. After the individual outlines are complete, the writers spend another two-to-three weeks discussing each main character’s individual arc, and arrange them episode-by-episode.
25. From there, a detailed outline is created and each of the writers work on a portion of it, to create a script for each episode. Cogman, who wrote two episodes for the fifth season, took a month and a half to complete both scripts. The scripts are then read by Benioff and Weiss, who give notes, and then parts of script are rewritten. All ten episodes are written before filming begins, as all the episodes are filmed simultaneously, out of order, and using two separate units in different countries.
26. Game of Thrones series has only 6 writers. In comparison, True Blood and The Walking Dead, two other television adaptations of popular books with sprawling casts, have had 14 and 20 total writers respectively.
27. George R.R. Martin revealed the ending of the book series to the television show’s producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff in case he does not live to finish the books.
28. Benioff and Weiss want to end the series in Season 7 or 8, even if the books are not finished.
29.The showrunners added Robb Stark’s pregnant wife, Talisa, to the infamous Red Wedding, as well as Season 4’s controversial rape scene between Jaime and Cersei Lannister.
30. Each 10-episode season of Game of Thrones employs between four and six directors, of which usually direct back-to-back episodes. Alex Graves, David Nutter, and Alan Taylor have directed the most episodes of the series, with six each. Others who have directed multiple episodes for several seasons include, Daniel Minahan with five episodes, while Michelle MacLaren, Mark Mylod, Jeremy Podeswa, Alik Sakharov, and Miguel Sapochnik have directed four each. Brian Kirk directed three episodes for the first season and Tim Van Patten directed the first two episodes of the series. Neil Marshall has directed two episodes, both of which are episodes featuring large battle sequences, “Blackwater” and “The Watchers on the Wall”. Other directors have been Jack Bender, David Petrarca, Daniel Sackheim, and Michael Slovis. Series creators and showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have also directed an episode each.
31. Author George R.R. Martin did not write an episode for the fifth or sixth seasons because he was busy focusing on finishing the sixth book of the series, “The Winds of Winter”.
32. George R.R. Martin has stated that several of the show’s characters are improvements over his own versions in the books with both writing and performance, specifically mentioning Natalia Tena as Osha and Sibel Kekilli as Shae.
33. Game of Thrones is known for its gratuitous sex. The show has even hired female porn stars for supporting roles (often as prostitutes). But for those who want more sex and less “sexposition,” there are three porn parodies to choose from — so far: Game of Bones, Sex of Thrones and This Ain’t Game of Thrones XXX.
34. In Westeros, bastards (also ‘natural child’ or ‘baseborn’) born to nobles are given surnames different than their father’s, according to the region they were born in. These surnames are mostly associated with the geographic or climatic features of the respective regions: The Reach – Flowers; The Westerlands – Hill, The Iron Islands – Pyke, The Riverlands – Rivers, Dorne – Sand, The North – Snow, The Vale – Stone, The Stormlands – Storm & The Crownlands – Waters. These special surnames or “bastard names” apply only to noble-born bastards, who are openly acknowledged by their noble parent. Therefore, bastards both of whose parents are commoners, or noble-born bastards that are unacknowledged by their noble parent (like Gendry) cannot use the special surname. A noble-born bastard can be legitimized by royal decree, thus is considered as trueborn child and changes the surname to the father’s. However, the social stigma of the bastard may not always be lifted even after legitimization.
35. The official words of House Lannister “Hear Me Roar!” are seldom mentioned. Their unofficial motto “A Lannister always pays his debts” is often used, mostly in negative context, meaning that Lannisters always repay unkindness with unkindness.
36. Daenerys’ dragon Drogon, the largest of the three with black and red scales, is considered in the novels to be the reincarnation of Balerion the Black Dread. Balerion was the largest of Aegon the Conquerer’s dragons, and was also responsible for the creation of the Iron Throne.
37. Maester Aemon Targaryen of the Night’s Watch is revealed to be blind in the novels. He is played by Peter Vaughan, who is legally partially blind himself.
38. Many of the characters have nicknames, mostly based on specific deed, behavior or physical feature of the person in question. The nicknames can be derogatory (Kingslayer) or for mockery (Brienne the Beauty). For example:
Eddard Stark: Ned, Jaime Lannister: the Kingslayer, Tyrion Lannister: the Imp or Halfman, Varys: the Spider, Sandor Clegane: the Hound, Gregor Clegane: the Mountain that Rides (or simply the Mountain), Petyr Baelish: Littlefinger, Jeor Mormont: the Old Bear, Loras Tyrell: Knight of Flowers, Olenna Tyrell: Queen of Thorns, Roose Bolton: Leech Lord, Aerys Targaryen: the Mad King, Viserys Targaryen: the Beggar King, Theon Greyjoy: the Turncloak or Reek, Melisandre: the Red Woman, Vargo Hoat: the Goat, Robb Stark: the Young Wolf , Brienne: the Beauty, Qhorin: Halfhand, Mance Rayder: the King Beyond the Wall, Davos Seaworth: the Onion Knight, Jon Umber Sr.: Greatjon, Jon Umber Jr.: Smalljon, Eddison Tollett: Dolorous Edd, Samwell Tarly: the Slayer, Gerold Hightower: the White Bull, Arthur Dayne: Sword of the Morning, Brynden Tully: Blackfish, Oberyn Martell: the Red Viper, Oberyn Martell’s bastard daughters: the Sand Snakes.
39. Women in Westeros typically take their husband’s surname upon marriage, with the exception of the house holding the Iron Throne where the surname is only inherited by birth and not marriage. This is why consorts to kings and heirs of the Iron Throne retain their own name, e.g. Cersei Lannister instead of Cersei Baratheon, Elia Martell instead of Elia Targaryen.
40. Daenerys’ dragons are named Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Each one is named after someone she has lost in her life: Drogon, the largest dragon with black/red scales, is named after her husband Khal Drogo; Rhaegal, who has green/bronze scales, is named after Daenerys’ brother Rhaegar Targaryen, who was killed by Robert Baratheon during Robert’s Rebellion; Viserion, the cream/gold scaled dragon, is named after Daenerys’ abusive brother Viserys. She claimed that she named her dragon this because “Viserys was cruel and weak and frightened, yet he was my brother still. My dragon will do what he could not.”
41. The Wall stretches for 300 miles and is 700 ft tall, made of stone and ice. The legend is that Brandon the Builder, also known as Brandon Stark, built The Wall with the help of magic and giants.
42. In a 2012 study of deaths per episode, the series was listed second out of 40 recent U.S. TV drama series, with an average of 14 deaths per episode.
43. During the production of the third season, 257 cast names were recorded.
44. Game of Thrones is one of most expensive shows on TV. It costs three times as much to make an episode of GoT as it does to make an episode of The Big Bang Theory. (However, it is still costs $1 million less than it did to make any episode on the final season of Friends).
45. In the original pilot, Jennifer Ehle (Pride & Prejudice) played Catelyn Stark and newcomer Tamzin Merchant starred as Daenerys Targaryen. Producers decided to reshoot the entire pilot with five roles recast, including Michelle Fairley and Emilia Clarke stepping in for Catelyn and Daenerys.
46. The original pilot of the show has never been aired.
47. In the unaired pilot, George R.R. Martin cameoed as a Pentoshi nobleman at the wedding of Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen. The scene, alongside most of the pilot, was subsequently reshot and Martin did not appear.
48. The Game of Thrones title sequence introduces every episode and changes depending on the locations visited in that particular episode. One anomaly is that of Castle Black, which despite never being shown throughout Season 2 is still featured in the title sequences. As of Season 5, no locations north of The Wall have been featured.
49. The now-iconic opening was created by the prolific short-form filmmaking studio Elastic, which also created the credits for Masters of Sex, The Americans and True Detective. While GoT’s opening is meant to evoke the maps at the beginning of the Lord of the Rings books, it was Elastic’s creative director who came up with the “world within a sphere.” Pay attention to the shadowed areas beneath the surface of the map; there are cogs working there, too.
50. Each season shoots annually from July to December. Two units, the ‘Wolf’ and the ‘Dragon’, shoot concurrently in various countries.
51. No character appears in every episode, and only three characters have appeared in every episode of a given season: Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) and Jack Gleeson(Joffrey Baratheon) appeared in every episode of the first season, and Peter Dinklage(Tyrion Lannister) appeared in every episode of the second and fifth seasons.
52. A large number of the actors on the show have not read the books, some fearing it will affect their acting if they know what happens to their character.
53. After the first episode of the show aired, the actor who plays Joffrey, Jack Gleeson, received a letter from George R.R. Martin that read, “Congratulations, everyone hates you!”
54. The actress who plays Tyrion’s mistress Shae began her career as a porn actress.
55. The severed head of George W. Bush appears in a couple of scenes in the first season of the show.
56. The dire wolves on the first season of the show were played by Northern Inuit dogs.
57. In the later seasons of the show, the dire wolves are real wolves that have been inserted digitally. The ancient breed is said to have been 25% larger than today’s grey wolf.
58. Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, adopted the dog that played her dire wolf in the show. The dog is named Zunni.
59. Emilia Clarke (the actress who plays Daenerys Targaryen) was doused in so much fake blood during one scene that she got stuck to a toilet seat during a break.
60. The “horse heart” Daenerys ate for Khol Drogo on the show was actually a three-pound mass of a gummy bear–like substance.
61. Jack Gleeson based Joffrey on Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus in Gladiator (2000).
62. Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, says that fans often ask her to recite the list of names Arya always recites before sleeping – the names of the persons in the series who have injured Arya or her family and who Arya intends to kill – and to insert the fan’s name into the list.
63. The role of Tommen Baratheon, portrayed by Callum Wharry, was completely absent from the third season of the series and was later recast for season 4; being then played by Dean-Charles Chapman, who had already previously appeared in the show playing Martyn Lannister in season 3.
64. Gwendoline Christie, the actress who plays Brienne, does not know her birthday.
65. Peter Dinklage is vegetarian. All the “meat” he eats on the show isn’t real.
66. Jerome Flynn, who plays Bronn, was in ’90s doo-wop duo called Robson and Jerome. They had three No. 1 singles in the U.K.
67. Charlie Chaplin has a relative on the show: it’s Robb Stark’s late wife played by Oona Chaplin.
68. Charles Dickens too. Daenery’s brother Viserys is the great-great grandson of Charles Dickens.
69. The actor who plays Theon, Alfie Allen, is the brother of Lily Allen. She even wrote a nice little song about him smoking weed all the time.
70.The actor who plays Bran’s 13-year-old companion Jojen Reed is actually 23 in real life. He was also the voice of Ferb on the Disney Channel show Phineas and Ferb.
71. The actresses who play Sansa and Arya are good friends in real life.
72. Peter Dinklage was George R.R. Martin’s first choice for Tyrion.
73. Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey were friends before the show began, and Dinklage even helped get Headey the part of Cersei.
74. Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys on the show, does not dye her hair blonde. She wears a wig instead.
75. The actress who plays Sansa, on the other hand, has blonde hair in real life.
76. Jack Gleeson, aka Joffrey, played a little kid in Batman Begins.
77. The actor who plays Stannis Baratheon, Stephen Dillane, has a connection to the Harry Potter universe: his son is the actor who plays Tom Riddle
78. The actress who plays Catelyn Stark, Michelle Fairley, played Mrs. Granger in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
79. Kristian Nairn, the Irish actor who plays Bran Stark’s hulking escort, Hodor, came out earlier this year,making him the first openly gay actor of the show’s 100-plus member cast.
80. Daenerys had purple eyes in the books, but the contact lenses Emilia Clarke wore affected her performance so they were abandoned.
81. Iwan Rheon was the primary runner-up to play Jon Snow, but was later cast as Ramsay Snow.
82. Liam Burke was cast as Aerys II Targaryen, the “Mad King” in flashback scenes, but the scenes were cut.
83. Charles Dance finds Lord Tywin’s appalling treatment of his son awful. He remarks that it’s hard for him to mistreat a nice man like Peter Dinklage.
84. In sharp contrast to his turn as sadistic Joffrey, everyone on the show describes actor Jack Gleeson as a warm and friendly person. He is also good friends with Sophie Turner, who he often has to antagonize on-screen.
85. In 2014, Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) was announced to succeed Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in the 2015 sequel of The Terminator(1984),Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) had played Sarah Connor in the television series The Terminator: Sarah Connor’s chronicles (2008), which was a spin-off of the “Terminator” films.
86. The first season premiered on Sean Bean’s birthday (April 17th).
87. Tom Hollander was reportedly offered the role of “Littlefinger” and now regrets turning it down.
88. Game of Thrones is the first acting role ever for Maisie Williams, who plays Arya.
89. Emilia Clark (Daenerys) voiced Dr. Zoidberg’s girlfriend on Futurama.
90. Of all the international locations used throughout the series, Emilia Clarke’s favorite is Croatia.
91. After winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Peter Dinklage became the show’s top-billed star. Before it was “Ned Stark”.
92. In June 2014 Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited the sets at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast as part of a three day visit to Northern Ireland. They met members of the cast and crew and were presented with a miniature version of the Iron Throne. Elizabeth was offered the chance to sit on the Iron Throne but declined. Maisie Williams later remarked on the visit, “I did not get the impression she is a fan” as the Queen was unaware of her role on the series.
93. Jon Snow is coincidentally the name of a Channel Four News Presenter, making the line “You know nothing, Jon Snow” unintentionally funny.
94. In 2014, several of the actors’ contracts were renegotiated to include the option for a seventh season, and included raises that reportedly made the cast among the best-paid on cable TV.
95. More than 150 babies were named “Khaleesi” in 2012.
96. “Arya” is the fastest-growing baby name in the United States.
97. The show is credited with inventing the phrase “sexposition,” which basically means revealing important plot points of a story while tons of gratuitous sex is happening.
98. Costume designer Michelle Clapton says the most time-consuming part of the design process is breaking in the wardrobe. She says breaking in the costumes helps the show avoid that cheap Renaissance Fair-fantasy look.
99. The show’s costumes are inspired by many cultures, such as Japanese and Persian. Dothraki outfits resemble the Bedouin’s (one was made out of fish skins to resemble dragon scales), and the Wildlings wear animal skins inside out like the Inuit. Wildling bone armor is made of molds taken of real bones and assembled with string and latex resembling catgut.
100. About two dozen wigs are used for the actresses. Made of human hair and up to 2 feet (61 cm) in length, they cost up to $7,000 each and are washed and styled like real hair. Applying the wigs is a lengthy process; Clarke, for example, requires about two hours to style her brunette hair with a platinum-blonde wig and braids. Other actors such as Gleeson and Turner receive frequent haircoloring. For characters such as Daenerys (Clarke) and her Dothraki, hair, wigs, and costumes are processed so they appear as if they have not been washed for weeks
101. Yara Greyjoy, introduced in the second book and season, is named Asha in the books. The name was changed for the television series to avoid confusion with Osha. However, in the German dubbed version she is called Asha, like in the books. Similarly, Lysa Arryn’s son Robert is named Robin in the series to avoid confusion with Robert Baratheon.
102. ‘Game of Thrones’ airs on the SyFy channel in Portugal and TNT in Switzerland.Despite being an HBO show, Game of Thrones doesn’t always appear on HBO in other countries.
103. It’s also the most pirated show on television. BitTorrent says the 2013 season finale of Game of Thrones was downloaded via their site 5.9 million times. (Compare that with Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead at 4.2 and 3.6 million downloads, respectively.) And HBO doesn’t seem to have a problem with that. CEO Richard Plepler told Buzzfeed it was a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers.”
104. Nielsen research says women make up about 42% of the shows viewers, making it more popular among women than comparable programs.
105. This is the first TV series in history to be screened in IMAX theaters.
106. As of 2014, it is the most watched HBO TV-Series of all time, with an average viewership of 16.1 million (Season 4), slightly ahead of a record which was previously held by Sopranos (1999).
107. The showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said the production of the show is a massive undertaking. The production lasts the entire year and they shoot the show like a 10-hour movie. Season 5 alone was shot in 5 countries, on 151 sets, for 240 days, having 166 cast members, over 1,000 crew members and over 5,000 extras.
108. The pilot reportedly cost HBO between US$5 and 10 million, and the total budget for the first season had been estimated at US$50–60 million.
109. In the second season, the show obtained a 15% budget increase to depict the climactic battle in the episode “Blackwater”, which had a budget of US$8 million. Between 2012 and 2015, the average episode’s budget grew from US$6 million to “at least” 8 million. The budget for the sixth season was over $10 million per episode, totaling over $100 million for the full season and setting a new high for the series.
The producers initially considered shooting the whole series in Scotland, but eventually chose Northern Ireland because of the availability of studio space.
110. Principal photography for the first season was scheduled to begin on July 26, 2010. The primary location was the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Exterior scenes in Northern Ireland were filmed at Sandy Brae in the Mourne Mountains (standing in for Vaes Dothrak), Castle Ward (Winterfell), Saintfield Estates (the Winterfell godswood), Tollymore Forest (outdoor scenes), Cairncastle (the execution site), Magheramorne quarry (Castle Black) and at Shane’s Castle (the tourney grounds).Doune Castle in Stirling, Scotland, was also used in the original pilot episode for exterior and interior scenes at Winterfell.
111. The first season’s southern scenes were filmed in Malta, a change in location from the sets in Morocco used for the pilot episode.The city of Mdina was used for scenes in King’s Landing, and filming also took place at Fort Manoel (representing the Sept of Baelor), at the Azure Window on the island of Gozo (the Dothraki wedding site), and at San Anton Palace, Fort Ricasoli, Fort St Angelo and St. Dominic monastery (all used for scenes in the Red Keep).
112. For the second season, shooting of the Southern scenes shifted from Malta to Croatia, where the city of Dubrovnik and nearby locations allowed exterior shots of a seaside walled medieval city. The Walls of Dubrovnik and of Fort Lovrijenac were used for scenes in King’s Landing and the Red Keep. The island of Lokrum, the St. Dominic monastery in the coastal town of Trogir, the Rector’s Palace in Dubrovnik and the Dubac quarry a few kilometers to the east were used for scenes set in Qarth. Scenes set north of the Wall, in the Frostfangs and at the Fist of the First Men, were filmed in Iceland in November 2011, on the Svínafellsjökull glacier and near Smyrlabjörg and Vík on Höfðabrekkuheiði.
113. For the third season the production returned to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The Walls of Dubrovnik, Fort Lovrijenac and nearby locations were used for scenes in King’s Landing and the Red Keep. One new location Trsteno Arboretum is the garden the Tyrells use in King’s Landing. The third season also returned to Morocco (previously used in the pilot episode), including the city of Essaouira, to film Daenerys’ scenes in Essos. One scene with a live bear was filmed in Los Angeles.
114. The fourth season returned to Dubrovnik and included new locations in Croatia, such as Diocletian’s Palace in Split, Klis Fortress north of Split, Perun quarry east of Split, Mosor mountain and Baška Voda further down to the south. Filming took 136 days, ending on November 21, 2013.
115. The fifth season added Seville, Spain, as a filming location, which is used for the fictional location of Dorne. The sixth season, which will begin filming in July 2015, will return to Spain, and film in the cities of Girona and Peniscola.
116. Tourism organizations in other filming locations also reported notable increases in bookings after their locations appeared in Game of Thrones. Bookings through one web portal in 2012 increased by 13% in Iceland and by 28% in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In 2013, bookings increased by 100% in Ouarzazate, Morocco, where Daenerys’ season 3 scenes were filmed.
117. Northern Ireland says ‘Game of Thrones’ has brought more than $100 million to their economy.
118. Unusually for television series, the sound team receives a rough-cut of a full season to work on, and they approach it like a ten-hour feature film. Season 1 and 2 each had a different sound team, but for the subsequent seasons, the same team has been working on the sound. For the show’s blood and gore sounds, the sound team often uses ashammy. For dragon screams, they have used the sounds of two tortoises mating, as well as dolphin, seal, lion and bird sounds.
119. Game of Thrones was highly anticipated by fans before its premiere. It has since become a critical and commercial success. By 2014, according to The Guardian it had become “the biggest drama” and “the most talked about show” on television.
120. The series has also inspired other works, including four video games based on the TV series and novels. The strategy game Game of Thrones Ascent ties in particularly closely with the series, making characters and settings available to players as soon as they appear on air.
121. The series received numerous awards and nominations, including 26 Primetime Emmy Awards and 86 nominations. The first season of Game of Thrones was nominated for thirteen of the 2011 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series. It won two, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Main Title Design. Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister, was named Best Supporting Actor by the Emmys, the Golden Globes, the Scream Awards and the Satellite Awards. In 2012, the second season won six of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. The third season won the least amount of Emmys yet with two and the fourth season won a total of four Creative Arts Emmy Awards. In 2015, it set a record for winning the most number of Emmy Awards for a series in a single year, winning 12 out of 24 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series. Overall, Game of Thrones has won 190 industry awards and has been nominated for 510.
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