“We had been filming for 4 months…”: Maisie Williams Exposing the Truth Behind a Botched ‘Game of Thrones’ Scene Reveals Why Season 8 Was Such a Disaster
- The Battle of Winterfell in 'Game of Thrones' took 55 days of intense shooting.
- The challenges of the final season led to exhaustion and mistakes.
- Maisie Williams sheds light on the fact that the coffee cup was just an error.
The final season of Game of Thrones, particularly the huge Battle of Winterfell, has stirred up a lot of discussion and differing opinions among fans. The cast and crew’s revelations show the huge challenges they faced during the show. The battle (a key moment in the series) needed an incredible amount of effort from them.
The intense pressure of filming the battle is believed to have led to another infamous moment in Season 8: a coffee cup appearing in one scene. Actress Maisie Williams said that the cast and crew were so worn out after months of night shoots, which caused this mistake.
Game of Thrones Coffee Cup Error Clarified
Maisie Williams responded to a Quora question about whether the Starbucks coffee cup in Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3, was a mistake or product placement. She clarified in an appearance on GQ:
It’s not actually a Starbucks coffee cup; it’s just a coffee cup. I wish we had been paid for it, but we weren’t. We were just exhausted after filming for four months at night. I was just glad people were talking about our show. It’s not that deep, it’s just a little coffee cup.
The botched scene where the coffee cup is visible occurs after their victory in the Battle of Winterfell against the Night King in The Last of the Starks. Soon, it became a viral meme.
Her comment shows how tired everyone was during the filming of the coffee cup scene, which was shot after the battle, and no one noticed it. The battle itself took 55 days to shoot. The episode was released as is, but it wasn’t until fans made fun of the mistake that the cup was removed.
The Battle That Exhausted the Game of Thrones Cast
It’s evident that rushing and carelessness are what doomed Season 8. The filming of the Season 8 battle took 11 weeks of night shoots, which was really tough on the actors.
Iain Glen, who played Ser Jorah Mormont, described it as the worst experience on Thrones, saying it was miserable and exhausting. Actors had no life outside the show, and it showed on screen. Rory McCann, who plays The Hound, said everyone hoped they’d never have to do it again.
Maisie Williams was excited to finally be part of a big battle. She mentioned she’d missed out on battles in previous seasons, even though Arya had been training for them. This was her first big battle scene, and she felt thrown into it. Miguel Sapochnik warned the 27-year-old a year before filming that it would be very hard and physically draining. She told EW:
“It’s night after night, and again and again, and it just doesn’t stop. You can’t get sick, and you have to look out for yourself because there’s so much to do that nobody else can do… there are moments you’re just broken as a human and just want to cry.
The Battle of Winterfell was a huge project. They had to build a big new set and coordinate several filming teams. Sapochnik was inspired by Peter Jackson’s work on The Lord of the Rings to create a battle scene that would wow the audience. Although the final season of Game of Thrones is still debated, the incredible effort and dedication in creating one of television’s most iconic battle scenes is undeniable.
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