20 things you didn't know about 'Game of Thrones'

Game of Thrones season 7

"Game of Thrones" flavor eight premiered on April 14.
Helen Sloan/HBO
  • Since the show's kickoff in 2011, the testify's viewership has more than tripled.
  • In the Northern Republic of ireland product alone, "Game of Thrones" used 4,000 gallons of fake blood.
  • There were xiii,250 visual effects shots in the first 7 seasons alone.
  • Visit INSIDER.com for more than stories.

Afterwards nearly 2 long years of patiently waiting, winter is finally hither. The terminal flavour of HBO's massively pop testify "Game of Thrones" premiered concluding Sunday, much to the excitement of fans everywhere. With pretty much all your favorite characters dead and plenty of loose ends to necktie up (like who is going to sit on the Iron Throne ), "GOT" season eight is shaping upwardly to be one of the most thrilling still.

Continue reading for xx epic facts you lot definitely did not know about "GOT."

Mail-production took most a year on season 8.

Season one, by comparison, took 17 weeks.
HBO

Fans had to look nearly two years for the final season of "GOT" to premiere — and post-production was one of the principal reasons. According to HBO , season eight was in post-product for 42 weeks.

To put that in perspective, the first season of the show was in post-production for 17 weeks.

One of its biggest stars had hesitations about the role.

Peter Dinklage wasn't sold on Tyrion Lannister.
HBO

Peter Dinklage has made a splash as Tyrion Lannister condign one of the most beloved actors on the show. Simply it may surprise you lot to know that he almost turned down that role because he didn't desire to be in a fantasy show.

"I had one hesitation, considering of the fantasy genre, I told him I didn't want a actually long bristles and pointy shoes," Dinklagesaid in a Reddit AMA.

"[Benioff and co-creator Dan Weiss] assured me this character and this globe wasn't that," Dinklage told Reddit. "They told me virtually 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 cute portrait of him, and then I signed on."

The show has been filmed in 10 countries.

The Castle of Zafra in Campillo de Dueñas, Spain, was the filming location for the Tower of Joy in Game of Thrones' flavour half-dozen.
Courtesy of TripAdvisor / Courtesy of HBO

While most people are familiar with "GOT"'s motion picture locations in Northern Ireland and Croatia, fans might not know that the HBO production has filmed in viii other countries : Democracy of Ireland, Kingdom of morocco, Malta, Spain, Republic of iceland, United States, Canada, and Scotland.

Many of these locations included real-life castles , which is why the sets on the show appear so realistic.

The number of nude people dropped drastically in the seventh season.

Simply 7 appeared nude.
HBO

Since the show first started, many take been vocal about its use of nudity and its sex activity scenes. Merely Broadly found out that the instances of nudity were minimal in flavour vii, down to merely six, in comparison to 33 in the first season.

The cast plain had to read scripts on secured iPads.

It'south important to keep it spoiler-complimentary.
HBO

Ian Glen, who plays Jorah Mormont, told BBC Radio v that production was so worried about paper scrips being leaked that they simply allowed the bandage to read the script from secured iPads.

"They're absolutely paranoid now about anyone finding out anything almost the series and spoiling it," he told them.

The final flavour of the show had a huge budget.

It was evidently $90 million.
HBO

The final season of the show is expected to be epic, but creators manifestly had a $90 meg upkeep to piece of work with over the grade of the flavor. That means that the reported $fifteen million per episode budget soared in comparing to the $2 million upkeep in the second season.

There was a lot of fake blood used on set.

The Red Nuptials was specially bloody.
HBO

Unsurprisingly, the George R.R. Martin-inspired prove features plenty of character deaths, many of which concluded in gruesome, bloody ways (remember the Cherry Wedding?). In the Northern Ireland product alone, "GOT" used iv,000 gallons of fake blood .

And, although nosotros're on the topic of impressive number stats, the bear witness used 50 miles of material for costumes and 52,000 numberless of paper snow throughout the eight seasons on air.

Pyrotechnics on the testify were no joke.

The testify used propane amidst other things to create burn-animate dragons.
HBO

From fire-breathing dragons to wooden houses beingness blown up by Daenerys Targaryen, fire is a major component on the set up of "GOT" and it turns out non all of information technology was CGI ( computer-generated imagery) .

According to HBO , the show used 163 tons of propane and iii,000 pyrotechnic effects during its 8-season run. They too used 1,102 pounds of Coffee Mate (aye, like the stuff yous put in your forenoon coffee) for pyrotechnics.

Ane actor really skinned a deer.

Charles Dance took his office seriously.
Macall B. Polay/courtesy of HBO

In the get-go flavour, when the audition is first introduced to Tywin Lannister (Charles Trip the light fantastic), he skins a deer. It was a bit unsettling to watch, partly considering of Dance's general acting skills, merely also considering information technology turns out that he took it a footstep farther and actually skinned the deer.

"That was a real deer. It was purchased from someone who sells stags and Charles Trip the light fantastic toe learned on the twenty-four hour period how to skin a deer. Yous never would have known. It seemed similar he'd done it his whole life," executive producer and series co-creator D.B Weiss told the LA Times.

It took months to perfect the Mother of Dragons' hair.

Daenerys is known for long, platinum pilus.
HBO

Everything on the "GOT" set was done with precision and idea, including the unlike hairstyles for each graphic symbol. Daenerys' vibrant blonde hair took more than than two months to perfect and vii dissimilar prototypes. In full, the show used just over 12,000 wigs and hairpieces over the course of eight seasons.

Over i.4 million still photographs were taken on set.

Helen Sloan has been taking photographs on fix since season ane.
Helen Sloan/HBO

Helen Sloan , "GOT"'s designated unit still lensman took over ane.4 million photographs throughout the eight seasons on fix. For those who don't know, still photographers take photos on set up that are oft used in the printing and for continuity.

This doesn't include the number of cast selfies that have been posted to Instagram through the years.

The show's viewership has more tripled since its premiere.

The viewership has skyrocketed since flavor ane, episode one.
Helen Sloan/HBO

Since the show first premiered in 2011, "GOT" has more than tripled from 9.three meg to 32.8 million in 2018 .

Maisie Williams kept her chocolate-brown jacket from the set

Maisie Williams equally Arya Stark on the 8th and final flavor of "Game of Thrones."
Helen Sloan/HBO

After filming her terminal scene as Arya Stark, Maisie Williams got to keep the brownish leather jacket she sported on the 7th and eighth season.

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