Warning: Contains potential spoilers for Game Of Thrones.
Game Of Thrones producers have teased a potentially brutal end to King’s Landing, and it’s revolved around the layout of Cersei’s map room.
The Lannister’s map which helped plot conquests across the seven Kingdoms received significant camera attention in season seven, but it seems the room could play a big part in the forthcoming final season.
In DVD commentary from season seven (noted by fansite Winter Is Coming), there’s a specific discussion between the producers about the design requirements of the map room handed to them via showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.
Interestingly, they stated how the room needed to be roofless and visible to the sky to fulfil a plot point in the final season.
In the commentary, VFX producer Steve Kullback said: ‘[the creators] asked us to make [the map room] an exterior location in an upcoming episode, but I can’t tell you why…. But that’ll pay off.’
There’s also an exchange between features producer Chris Newman, VFX supervisor Joe Bauer, and Kullback which gives an even more tantalising tease.
DVD commentary exchange
Newman: ‘The courtyard always was thought as being an exterior courtyard, even before she had the map painted, hence the sunlight.’
Bauer: ‘It used to be at least a story taller, but there was a need to see the sky in this coverage.’
Kullback: ‘Forthcoming coverage.’
So what does an open roof mean for the future of Game Of Thrones? Is this simply Cersei catching a few rays while planning Westeros domination?
Nope, this could connect to a classic Bran Stark vision from back in season four – where he sees massive dragon wings casting a dark shadow over King’s Landing.
The need for an open map room certainly indicates we’ll be seeing some sort of dramatic scene revolved some horror in the skies – so could it be Daenerys flying with Drogon?
Or now Viserion is part of #TeamWhiteWalker, could Cersei be about to face icy flame doom via the Night King?
Game Of Thrones is renowned for its incredible foreshadowing in the tiniest of details, so this could be another excellent piece of seeding which comes to fruition in the final season.
Destruction certainly seems to be a prominent theme for the season eight, with leaked on-set images showing a particular stronghold up in flames.
The final season of Game Of Thrones is set to air in 2019, with Maisie Williams recently stating it would be released in April.
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