1) The frozen lake beyond the wall is just a big pit
Remember that huge frozen over lake that features so prominently in series 7 where the heroes have a grand last stand? Turns out that it was just a hole in the ground that was dressed up to look…watery.
Being a quarry in Northern Ireland that was concreted over, Riley noted that “when you were in that quarry it looked pretty much like as you see it on screen. ”
“I remember the producer Chris Newman standing there [in the quarry] and saying ‘well this could be it. Jon could enter this way, the Night King would stand over there’ and all of us going ‘OK. Right.’
“You would never believe it unless you saw. And that’s the great thing because we don’t want people to see it. That’s the magic of the whole thing.”
2) A giant staircase was made for The Mountain fight scene
One of the trickiest challenges facing Riley was how to construct a staircase for a fight scene which could support the 206cm-tall Hafthor Bjornsson.
“The actor who played The Mountain is obviously a very tall guy and his feet are really quite big,” Riley said.
Used in the epic fight that saw the conclusion of the Clegane brothers narrative Riley revealed that the team had to construct a special staircase that was big enough for Bjornsson, but not so big that supporting actor Rory McCann would be too fatigued.
“”I think that one took us all by surprise,” she said of the scale of the project.
3) The hall of faces is based off a real place
When Arya learns to become a faceless man in Braavos she visits a weird chamber known only as The House of Black and White.
The house itself depicted thousands of faces in nooks in the wall – a piece of the set designed soley by Riley, and based off a real place – the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery in Hong Kong.
The monastery is home to 13,000 statues that line the walls of the main temple, which inspired the final set seen on the show – a piece of design that Riley admitted was “a weird scenario.”
The chamber that served as the inspiration for the Hall of Faces
You can read the full interview with Riley here. Given that a prequel to the series is apparently being filmed, here’s hoping we’ll have many more easter egg show hunts in the future.
