George R.R. Martin reveals his least favourite “Game of Thrones” scene and, believe it or not, it does not involve Daenerys Targaryen.
Martin reflects on the episode in question in his new book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon via Entertainment Weekly.
Budget restraints were not an issue in the final “GoT” seasons, with each episode costing approximately $15 million. Money was tighter, however, in the show’s early days. Season 1 was given an estimated budget of $6 million per episode.
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“Where we really fell down in terms of budget was my least favourite scene in the entire show, in all eight seasons: King Robert goes hunting,” Martin says. “Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly s**t.
“In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he dies,” the author elaborates. “So I never did [a hunting scene].”
The scene presented on television was not at all what Martin was going for.
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“I knew what a royal hunting party was like,” he asserts. “There would have been a hundred guys. There would have been pavilions. There would have been huntsmen. There would have been dogs. There would have been horns blowing.”
“That’ how a king goes hunting!” he continues. “He wouldn’t have just been walking through the woods with three of his friends holding spears hoping to meet a boar. But at that point, we couldn’t afford horses or dogs or pavilions.”
Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon will be released on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Author James Hibberd spoke with Martin, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and all of the show’s cast members to get a complete look behind the scenes of “GoT”.
