Among the many celebrity guests at the most recent Con of Thrones was Kieran Belshaw, longtime Game of Thrones concept artist. During an hour-long interview on the main stage, he walked the audience through his process, explained how much contact he has with the producers and actors, and showed off some seriously cool concept art, some of which was used in the final episodes…and some of which wasn’t.
Watch the interview below, and then we’ll hit some of the highlights!
To me, there were two parts of the interview that really stood out. The first was when he showed off an unused piece of concept art for the Battle of Winterfell:
That would be Arya Stark running across the rooftops of Winterfell while Viserion blasts the castle apart. Apparently, this was going to be an interstitial scene that bridged the moment when Arya met Melisandre within the castle and later when Arya showed up to take out the Night King. Maisie Williams apparently got “very excited” about these concept images, but obviously the scene was cut. “I think [the scene] probably was in the outline but they ended up taking a lot out because they had to cut it down quite a bit,” Belshaw said.
If I had to guess, I’d say they cut it so Arya showing up to stab the Night King would be more of a surprise, which makes sense. But if you’re wondering what happened during the lead-up, now you know.
The other part that really stood out to me starts around 41:00, when Belshaw reveals his original concept art for the crucial scene where the council of lords chooses Bran Stark to be king. Originally, that scene was going to take place in the ruins of the Red Keep throne room, not the Dragonpit. Quite a difference!
So why the change? Belshaw isn’t sure, but does say that when the concept art was shown to showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, they said no. He guesses it would have contrasted weirdly with the scene immediately prior, where Jon Snow killed Daenerys Targaryen in that same throne room. “David and Dan seems totally 100% adamant [that] they wanted it [at the Dragonpit],” Belshaw said. “I think it’s partially because they wanted to go to Spain…It’s a nice area. I don’t blame them.”
Some other highlights:
- Belshaw also submitted the designs for the Citadel library, although the original design wasn’t what we saw onscreen. “This is a very rare thing, but HBO sort of stepped in and said they wanted something different…It was a bit more abstract before, it was like an M.C. Escher drawing, almost, before. I guess they looked at it and changed their minds, I dunno.”
- Remember the part from “Battle of the Bastards” where Jon Snow is nearly trampled by his own men? That wasn’t in the script — it was a request from director Miguel Sapochnik, and Belshaw drew it up.
- Speaking of the Battle of the Bastards, they stored prop bodied in the Iron Throne room, which makes for a weird visual.
- Belshaw was psyched to make concept art for Drogon emerging from the snow. I assumed that the stuff in the air above King’s Landing in “The Iron Throne” was ash. Belshaw seems to think it’s snow. People agree in the end that it was “snash.”
Thanks to Belshaw for doing this interview! It was a great watch.
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