12 facts about 'Battle of the Bastards' that will blow you away

Is the latest Game of Thrones episode the greatest ever? Fans seem to think so! (Spoilers obviously)

While the latest season of Game of Thrones has had a slow start, its most recent episode, The Battle of the Bastards, has blown fans away. With nearly 50,000 votes, the episode has been rated 10/10 on IMDB. 

And now the makers of the show have treated us with a BTS video. So, here are 12 facts you didn't know about the making of The Battle of the Bastards.

1. The makers have never operated on such a large scale before 

Executive producer and writer D B Weiss revealed, "As soon as we wrote episode nine, we knew that it was going to have to operate on a scale that we've never operated before." He even brought on board the maestro who was in charge of season five's eighth episode, Hardhome.

Iwan Rheon, who plays Ramsay Bolton said, "The magnitude of the set and everything, it was unbelievable."

Kit Harrington said of the episode that took around 25 days to film, "It was a long, long slog."



Screengrab from BTS video.

2. The cavalry wall charging at Jon Snow was not CGI-made

Weiss revealed that Kit actually had 40 horses charging towards him, during filming.

"Probably my favourite shot of the whole season is when we're behind Jon Snow and he sees that cavalry wall galloping towards him, and part of the reason it's such a great shot is it's all real. That's 40 horses charging full speed at Kit Harrington," Weiss said.

"We're a bit annoyed because everyone's going to think it was CGI, and it wasn't," said Kit.

Horses charging at Kit Harrington. SCREENGRAB

3. 80 horses were used for the battle scene

The horse master, Camilla Naprous, used 80 horses for the battle sequence.

"This is the biggest amount of horse requirement I've ever had on Game of Thrones," revealed Camilla.

Kit explained, "When we had horses charging past me, those were all real horses."

Screengrab from BTS video.

4. The camera filming Kit Harrington was placed on a Land Rover

Due to the speed of the horses, an ordinary cameraman couldn't do the trick.

A remote-control arm that sits on a Land Rover, was used to follow Kit.

Screengrab from BTS video.

5. The massive pile of fake bodies had to be dressed in house uniforms

"All those prop bodies had to be dressed in the appropriate uniforms. We had to have the shields and the flags," said production designer Deborah Riley.

Screengrab from BTS video.

6. The episode was inspired by real medieval battles

David Benioff revealed that inspiration for the battle came "from reading accounts of these various battles, both medieval and even more modern ones."

Screengrab from BTS video.

7. Iwan always wanted to do a scene with Kit

Although it led to his character's death, Iwan was still psyched to shoot a scene with Kit.

"I always wanted to do a scene with Jon Snow. It's really nice to get to sort of have two bastards there together, facing off," he said.

8. It took 10 hours to film Jon Snow punching Ramsay Bolton

Director Miguel Sapochnik revealed that they "actually spent an entire day, 10 hours with Kit on top of Iwan beating him. I just shot it from every single angle I possibly could."



Screengrab from BTS video.

Kit explained, "What we wanted to try and get with that was that he's just kneading bread. He's just flattening this person's face, and that's what's changed in Jon for me. A monster is risen in him a bit, which I think should be unsettling for the viewers... It's a horrible moment when you see your hero go a bit too far."

Jon Snow punching Ramsay Bolton. SCREENGRAB

9. Sophie's favourite scene is when Sansa feeds Ramsay to the hounds

"When you hear her say, 'This won't affect me and I'm stronger than that,' it's my favourite scene," revealed Sophie.



10. It took 13 takes to shoot Sansa's final smirk 

"Her walk away, that final shot was so crucial and just to get that little hint of a smile just right, I think, we ended up making poor Sophie do it you know, 12 or 13 times in the middle of the night," said Weiss.

Screengrab from BTS video.

11. The trampling scene was not originally planned

Originally, the production had a different ending for the battle, but with the conditions on the set (rain caused the ground to become muddy), they were forced to come up with a different ending. The result was the incredibly claustrophobic scene of Jon fighting for air, reports Buzzfeed. 

Jon Snow coming up for air. SCREENGRAB

12. The makers joked that Rheon ends up on the Iron Throne, before telling him his character dies

Rheon told Entertainment Weekly, "They joked, ‘Isn’t it great Ramsay ends up on the Iron Throne?’ As soon as they said that I said, ‘He’s dead isn’t he?’”

Screengrab from BTS video.

Check out the BTS video:


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