Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon first to shoot on Warner Bros UK’s new virtual stage

After making the viewers wait for nearly a year, House of the Dragon began production earlier in April this year. Fans are already hyped up about the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel, as leaked pictures from the shooting sites keep popping up all over the internet. The show is also the first project to be filmed on Warner Bros UK’s newest virtual stage setup at Leavesden Studios, which is also its primary shoot location.

Warner Bros. Studios at Leavesden (WBSL), U.K., has expanded its facilities with the launch of three new sound stages and V Stage, a virtual production stage.

House of the Dragon is confirmed as the first production to use the new facilities. In addition to the extensive exterior backlot at the studios, V Stage will enable the series to expand upon its existing variety of international landscapes.

Some 83,000 sq. ft. of additional production space will be available at the U.K facility. The V Stage, one of Europe’s largest virtual production stages, offers 24,000 sq. ft. of total space, and the inside will feature a 7,100-sq. ft. wraparound virtual production environment, using a matrix of more than 2,600 LED panels integrated with a state-of-the-art processing system. A dynamic ceiling offers an additional 5,544 sq. ft. of LED panels with eight sections that work independently of one another, lifting and tilting to provide a new level of creative scope.

“The launch of V Stage brings a completely new dimension to filmmaking at WBSL, providing an exciting environment in which to deliver a new level of creativity,” said Emily Stillman, senior VP, studio operations, Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden. “With the show’s incredible imaginary worlds and exceptional quality HBO always delivers, ‘House of the Dragon’ is the perfect production to maximize the unparalleled opportunities this space offers.”

“A production with the ambition and scale of ‘House of the Dragon’ really requires a studio that can provide cutting-edge facilities,” said Janet Graham Borba, executive VP, West Coast production, HBO. “The new virtual stage adds to the highly supportive home hub for the show at Leavesden and lets us take full advantage of the latest developments in technology.”

For the prequel series, it seems like HBO is trying to level up on every aspect that made Game of Thrones such a huge success. On what pointers do you think House of The Dragon should focus on to be a bigger hit than the original show? Tell us in the comments below!

It has been 10 years since Game of Thrones first aired on HBO. The show’s graphic scenery was simply breathtaking. Most of the locations where the series was filmed are in Northern Ireland. However, some of the iconic scenes were shot in Spain. The show’s upcoming prequel, House of The Dragon, had already confirmed its primary shoot location at Leavesden Studios in Watford last year. Recently a few more filming sites have been revealed, that include a return to the exotic Spanish locations that were used in Game of Thrones and a few new spots in Portugal.

As reported by local Spanish newspaper Hoy, House of The Dragon will film in Cáceres and Trujillo in Spain. Both of them stood for King’s Landing in season seven of the original series. The old streets of Cáceres were shown most prominently as the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, specifically when Euron paraded the surviving Sands and his niece Yara as captives through the streets towards the Red Keep. Cáceres also appeared as Old Town, when Sam and Gilly left the city at the end of the season. Meanwhile, the Castle of Trujillo was used to depict the outer walls of King’s Landing as Jaime and Bronn oversaw the arrival of the Unsullied.

According to Hoy the HBO production will also move from Spain to neighbouring country of Portugal. But it is not known which sites will be used for filming.

Are you excited about House of The Dragon? Talk to us in the comments below!

This article contains spoilers from the latest Marvel TV series, Loki.

Marvel’s latest television venture ‘Loki‘ has been under the watchful eyes of the audience for quite some time now. The new series got the viewers to the edge of their seats, when the mid-season credits rolled, and it was revealed the God of mischief is still alive. And it didn’t end there, the TV show introduced various versions of Loki, that were never-before-seen in live-action. One of the most mysterious characters of them, the Boastful Loki, is played by Game of Thrones alum DeObia Oparei (Areo Hotah, captain of Prince Doran Martell’s guards). What’s even more surprising is the fact, unlike all the versions of Loki we have seen so far, this one looks the strongest and possesses his own Mjolnir. Yes, you heard it right! Thor’s fabled enchanted hammer Mjolnir!

After recovering from his latest death fake-out at the end of Loki episode 4, “The Nexus Event,” Loki Variant L1130 finds himself face-to-face with four new Loki variants. They include Old Loki (far right), in the middle is Kid Loki, on the left is Boastful Loki played by Oparei, and finally there’s little Crocodile Loki held by Kid Loki in the centre.

There’s not much known about Boastful Loki as of yet, except that he wields his own version of Mjolnir. Oparei is really excited to be a part of the show, as evident from his recent post on Twitter.

Thrilled to be a part of the MCU & excited to have been intro’d in Ep 4 of #LokiWednesdays pic.twitter.com/KasuBFQTjW

— DeObia Oparei (@DeObia) June 30, 2021

There are many theories as to who boastful Loki is. Some say he’s from a timeline where Thor died and he stood up to take his mantle. Other’s say he’s from a time branch where he’s born as an Asgardian. We don’t know yet. All we can do is wait for Loki episode 5 that is scheduled to stream on Disney+ on Wednesday, July 7, 2021.

Are you excited about the upcoming episode of Loki? Tell us in the comments below!

It is a well-known fact that most of the shooting for Game of Thrones took place in Northern Ireland. Before the pandemic, Northern Ireland was a thriving sanctuary for Game of Thrones lovers. HBO’s fantasy epic is a big part of the country’s tourism industry. Tourism Ireland has been putting in more efforts to boost this sector, by establishing itself as a premier tourist spot specifically devoted to the show. Tourism Ireland’s ‘Glass of Thrones‘ stained glass windows, which were created as part of Tourism Ireland Game of Thrones campaign to showcase and celebrate Northern Ireland as “Game of Thrones territory” during the airing of the final season of the popular fantasy television show in 2019, have gone on permanent display in Belfast.

Tourism Ireland stated on its website, “Tourism Ireland has gifted its six ‘Glass of Thrones’ stained-glass windows to Maritime Belfast Trust (formerly Titanic Foundation Limited). The windows are now on permanent display in the Titanic Quarter and are part of Belfast’s Maritime Mile.”

“The beautifully crafted windows were installed around Belfast back in 2019 – to showcase and celebrate Northern Ireland as ‘Game of Thrones territory’ to millions of fans of the TV series around the world. The windows – which each depicted a key House from the show – marked a decade of filming and production in Northern Ireland and the installation was timed to coincide with the broadcast of the final season. The campaign – called ‘Glass of Thrones’ – was created by Tourism Ireland and Tourism NI, in partnership with HBO.”

“As travel from overseas to Northern Ireland begins to restart, the ‘Glass of Thrones’ installation will be an important new attraction for fans of the hit TV series visiting Belfast and Northern Ireland. Tourism Ireland will take every opportunity to promote the ‘Glass of Thrones’ in Belfast’s Maritime Mile, as well as our Game of Thrones filming locations, in its promotions around the world.”

Have you ever been to the Game of Thrones shrines in Northern Ireland? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!