It’s hard to imagine Game of Thrones trying to keep costs minimal back when it first started filming in 2009.
Today it’s not only the most popular series on television but by far the most expensive, with season eight costing an estimated $15 million (£11.5 million) per episode.
Lena Headey, who stars as Cersei Lannister in the fantasy epic, is one of the few characters from the pilot still standing.
And during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, the 45-year-old revealed filming the messy rehearsal instalment was completely ‘bonkers’, admitting she was adamant Game of Thrones would tank.
‘I thought no one will ever watch this,’ Lena said, remembering the first time she read her script.
‘When you shoot a pilot there is no money. It was really funny, there were no chairs for us,’ she explained. ‘It was kind of bonkers.
‘There was no money put into because it was a pilot so you don’t know if it would go or not so you just make it in a tent in the cold, and we were like, “What are we doing?”
‘Then it came out and people loved it and we were like, “Oh, I guess we’re going to have jobs!”’
She continued: ‘We shot the pilot somewhere completely different and then we finally moved to Belfast and we had stages and all that stuff.’
Each year ratings continues to climb, as do the funds from HBO, so eventually Lena said it dawned on the cast: ‘This is really a thing.’
Though, the initial pilot never actually made it to air.
Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Tom McCarthy, the end result wasn’t received well by HBO and, in turn, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stepped in, reshot several scenes, replaced two of the main cast and, thankfully, produced a more convincing taste of what was to come.
Details of the scrapped pilot were released earlier this month and, honestly, we’re so glad they never saw the light of day.
Game of Thrones season 8 returns to HBO and Sky Atlantic on April 14.
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