Thrones Countdown #4:
Walking through the Game of Thrones prop room in Belfast is like browsing the aisles of a Pier One in Westeros. There’s all sorts of exotic furniture, decorations, knick nacks and the occasional dismembered head (no weapons — those are kept in the armory). Near the center of the room, sealed in a crate like the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders…there is a dragon.
Well, it’s a model dragon, the latest version that was created for season three. The model is used as a placeholder for actors to work against on the set, then a computer-generated dragon is inserted during the show’s post-production process. The first thing you notice is the dragon’s size. The creature no longer looks like an exotic bird that Daenerys Targaryen (Emila Clarke) can put on her shoulder. It’s now like a medium-sized dog. Only if you were to put this thing on a leash and walk it around a park, other pet owners would run screaming (you only get a slight sense of its increased fearsomeness in the current trailer, which shows a dragon flying from behind).
Over on the Thrones set, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss sit at wooden table that’s lavishly adorned for King Joffrey’s dinner feast. They compare the dragons’ growth to the way a baby crocodile or rottweiler can start off cute, then turn into a monster. “This is an interesting time for the dragons,” Benioff says. “When they were born they were adorable. Last season, as you say, they were still kind of cute. But now they’re turning into proper flying dragons. One of the interesting things about the books, and hopefully the show, is that the weapons of mass destruction in this world are living breathing things. And as they get older that presents problems.”
“They’re still cute to Daenerys,” Weiss adds. “They’re her babies. But her babies can burn down a house in a few minutes and they’re getting increasingly terrifying to everyone around her. At some point she will have to reckon with the fact her babies are all grown up.”
In a show filled with visual effects, the dragons represent the show’s greatest challenge since they’re full-CG animals and integral to the story. The other major CG-enabled creatures are the Stark family’s direwolves, which are played by real wolves, then digitally enlarged. Fans will notice fewer changes with the show’s direwolves this year. After growing from pups in the first season to large beasts in season two, producers have opted to keep them at the same size to maintain a greater sense of realism.
“We did some testing and at a certain point they look unreal,” Weiss says. “We reached a nice balance with them. And frankly, no matter how much money you spend on CG wolves — and we’ve seen the best that’s out there, state of the art, and some of it looks great — it still doesn’t look move and feel like a real animal.”
“With dragons, you get some leeway,” Benioff adds. “You can’t say, ‘Well, that doesn’t look like a real dragon.’”
“With a wolf, you have a million years of evolution telling you what they’re supposed to act like,” Weiss says.
Expect some exciting scenes in season three involving both creatures. You’ve noticed that HBO put a dragon on the show’s official marketing poster. There’s probably a good reason for that.
15 DAYS OF THRONES
1: Gwendoline Christie on being ‘too pretty’ to play Brienne
2. Rose Leslie: You know nothing about Ygritte’s catchphrase
3. EW Cover: ‘Game of Thrones’ wildest season yet! Jon + Dany, an ice and fire pairing
THRONES NEWS!: This is the fourth entry in a series of 15 Game of Thrones stories with exclusive behind-the-scenes content, largely drawn for our Northern Ireland set visit last fall. EW’s Thrones countdown will feature a new Game of Thrones story (#EWThrones hashtag) with original (non-spoiler) interviews each weekday in the Inside TV blog leading up to the March 31 season three premiere. After that, we’ll have recaps (see the recaps for the first two seasons here) and interviews after each episode airs. Follow me on Twitter @james_hibberd for Game of Thrones news and bookmark our Thrones hub here.
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Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) seizes Walder Frey's wife (Kelly Long) in an episode of "Game of Thrones." "Game of Thrones" once again tops the list of most pirated showsHBO exec has called it a "compliment of sorts"Other top shows include "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead"
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