Isaac Hempstead Wright reveals the extreme security measures that were taken to protect the Game of Thrones finale

“How far will you go to protect something you love?” It sounds like a dramatic line from a book, film, or show. And it could very well be! But here, we’re talking about the extreme lengths to which HBO went in order to protect the secrets of the final season of Game of Thrones during its filming. There was a long gap of almost two years between the airing of the seventh and the eighth season. So, it was quite obvious that people did as much as they could to fish out the details about the finale of perhaps the most-talked-about TV series ever. Things did leak but HBO took every measure possible to preserve the secrecy. Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark) revealed the security steps taken during the filming of a very important scene from the final episode of GoT. Read on to find out more. Spoilers ahead.

This scene featured the Stark siblings together for one last time on the show. The scene on the dock where Arya, Sansa, and Bran bid their farewells to Jon before he left for the Wall. Bran had already become the King of the Six Kingdoms; Sansa the Queen of the North; Arya had killed the Night King and was heading West; and Jon would spend the rest of his days beyond the Wall after having killed Daenerys. Thus, too many secrets went into the making of that moment on the dock. So, for that highly-charged scene filmed in Dubrovnik, Croatia, Isaac told news.com.au that the filming location seemed like a “CIA site”.

“It was ridiculous, the security and secrecy,” he said. We have heard similar things about the security measures from other actors as well. “When we shot in Dubrovnik for that scene where we’re saying goodbye to Jon Snow, I’ve never experienced anything like that; it was like being a secret agent. We came into the country on a chartered flight so nobody would see us, we stayed in this hotel and they booked out the entire hotel just for us. We weren’t allowed to go out, we couldn’t walk outside,” he described.

But that’s not all, the ‘dock-scene day’ amped the security even more. “On that day, HBO rented out every single apartment and every single hotel room that could possibly overlook where we were shooting. We had coast guards patrolling just outside in the water to check no boats were coming by”. Take a breath, it goes on further. “When we were coming in and out of cars we had to be covered in coats; and when we flew back, we were the last people on the flight and we had to sneak in.” It resembles a top-secret mission indeed.

This was all because Game of Thrones enjoyed huge popularity among the masses for almost a decade. “It was really amazing that people loved this story so much and were so desperate to get any nugget of information. You had a pinch-yourself-moment every day,” Hempstead Wright said.

As to whether he foresaw his rise to the throne, the 21-year-old actor said, “I didn’t see it coming at all. A lot of the time it was fans and friends talking and saying ‘I feel like it’s got to be Bran’ and I said ‘You are so wrong, it’ll be someone else.’ Even when I read the script I thought, ‘Is this really true?’ I wasn’t entirely sure, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t Bran. I thought it was going to be an obvious one, maybe Sansa. (But) no complaints there. It couldn’t have gone any better for me. It went badly for other people.”

It’s crazy how time flies on the wings of a raven. Game of Thrones ended more than a year ago. And it feels like just yesterday when we were speculating what course would the final season take. But we won’t go into all of that; we’ve done that so many times and there’s no point drawing fresh blood from an old/nearly healed wound. We’re happy that Brandon Stark sat on the throne; because who better to lead the realm than someone who knows all the mistakes of the history; plus, can watch over his kingdoms in real-time and has got no great desire to rule. All hail Bran the Broken!

What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comments section below.

Some characters begin as a side role but become massively popular amongst fans when done right. They completely steal the show. Miltos Yerolemou knew Game of Thrones was special, but he never knew his character Syrio Forel would gain such humongous fan-following. In an interview with Collider, he expressed how he felt when he checked out Game of Thrones forums on the internet.

“I never expected it in my wildest dreams, especially after only being in three episodes of Season 1,” he said. “I honestly did not expect that my gravestone will say, ‘Not today,’ but with the not crossed out. Now, you can hold me to that. But I really did not expect that to be my reality, but it is. And like I said, I’m thrilled, embarrassed, and humbled by it every single day.”

“I made the terrible mistake after I got cast to go and have a look at some of the Game of Thrones forums and realize just how excited the fans were that they were turning it into a TV show,” he said. “[T]he ingredients for a good TV show were there. But, I mean, it’s one thing having a successful and well-watched TV show. It’s another thing to do what Game of Thrones did, which changed all of our viewing habits overnight, really.”

Do you agree with Arya Stark’s sword instructor? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones was one of the biggest TV shows of the past decade. The fantastical epic set the bar for quality TV shows really high. It was hailed as the greatest TV show of the 21st century. Game of Thrones actor Miltos Yerolemou, who played Syrio Forel on the show, recently talked to Collider about the fantasy epic’s popularity.

He said, “[I]t became a show that you had to watch when it aired because of the nature of it. The fact that there were so many twists in it. If you didn’t watch it when it aired, you were very likely to get spoiled.”

He continued, “I had the fantastic experience of being able to watch the show aired live in big viewing parties in Greece, in Texas, in London. I kind of had that amazing experience, and I’d never had that experience before. Especially at the time when things were moving from the terrestrial… That whole way of watching TV was already shifting. I mean, now we’re all into the streaming medium and binge-watching. But Game of Thrones kind of straddled that transition, and really took us back to a place where it was exciting to watch that show altogether and at the same time. I thought that was pretty, really important as far as for the television industry. That’s for sure.”

Why do you think Game of Thrones became so popular? Tell us in the comments below!

Game of Thrones wrapped up filming nearly two years ago. Fans of the fantasy epic dearly miss the show and are eagerly waiting for the prequel House of The Dragon. Meanwhile, Netflix is keeping their audience busy with a fantasy story that has become quite popular in recent times, Shadow and Bone. Much to everyone’s surprise, there’s a secret connection between both the shows not many people know of. David J. Peterson, who wrote Valyrian and Dothraki for Game of Thrones, also created Fjerdan, a fictional language for Shadow and Bone.

In an interview with Cinema Blend, Danielle Galligan revealed how she learned the fictional language for her role, Nina Zenik. Galligan also played the small role of Sarra in Season 8 of Game of Thrones. She said:

“[Speaking Fjerdan] was really cool because I love language anyway and me and Cal are actually learning languages on Duo Lingo at the moment, so this is a theme in our relationship [laughs]. I thought that was really fun… to be able to go and learn another language that has been completely made up now. The guy who [helped us] also did Valyrian and Dothraki for Game of Thrones, so the fact that he can go back to etymology and to make this is absolutely incredible, and just speaks to the producers and showrunners about how specific they are and want us to be about this world. And yeah, I loved speaking Fjerdan, my voice always dropped two octaves and I’m not sure why.”

Did you know about this unknown connection between the two shows? Tell us in the comments below!