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12 Facts About Game of Thrones You Probably Didn’t Know

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Nazarii Verbitskiy

TV Shows & Movies - February 28th 2026, 19:00 GMT+1

Peter Dinklage has most episode appearances — 12. Tyrion Lannister Ended Up With the Most Screen Time

If you ever wondered who really “lived” in Westeros the longest, the numbers point straight to Tyrion Lannister: he shows up in 67 of the series’ 73 episodes, more than anyone else. That isn’t just because he’s popular – it’s because the story keeps needing his perspective as the political center of gravity shifts from the Lannisters’ court to war rooms, prisons, and eventually Daenerys’ inner circle. Tyrion’s scenes do a lot of heavy lifting: he explains strategies, exposes hypocrisy, and pushes plots forward without requiring a battlefield every week. And because Peter Dinklage plays him with equal parts bite and bruised humanity, those appearances rarely feel like “filler” – they feel like the spine of the show. | © HBO

Jack Gleeson was inspired by Joaquin Phoenix — 11. Jack Gleeson Didn’t “Improv” Joffrey – He Studied Him

Joffrey’s cruelty feels so specific that people assume it’s just a young actor leaning into chaos, but Jack Gleeson has talked about building the performance with real reference points rather than playing “generic villain.” One of the more surprising inspirations he’s mentioned is Joaquin Phoenix – not because Joffrey resembles any one Phoenix character, but because of the controlled intensity and the way quiet moments can still feel dangerous. That’s why Joffrey often reads as terrifying even when he’s not shouting; the menace sits in the pauses, the smirks, the sudden mood flips. It’s less “evil kid throws tantrum” and more “someone who enjoys the power dynamic.” | © HBO

Notable musicians appeared on Go T — 10. Pop Stars Slipped Into Westeros When You Weren’t Looking

The cameos weren’t the winking, stop-the-scene kind – more like “blink and you’ll miss it” Easter eggs for music fans. Ed Sheeran shows up as a Lannister soldier in Season 7, singing around a campfire before the story barrels on, and it’s deliberately played straight rather than treated like a novelty. Earlier, the band Sigur Rós appears as musicians at a royal event (a deep-cut cameo that fits the world surprisingly well). The fun part is how the show uses real musicians in roles that already exist in Westeros – singers, players, background texture – so the fantasy doesn’t have to bend to accommodate the stunt. | © HBO

There was real life romance — 9. A Real-Life Romance Changed the Vibe of Two Key Characters

Sometimes chemistry isn’t something you manufacture with direction – it just shows up and forces the camera to cooperate. Kit Harington and Rose Leslie met while filming the Jon Snow and Ygritte storyline, and their off-screen relationship later became public and eventually led to marriage. Knowing that, a lot of their scenes land with extra warmth: the teasing feels easier, the silences feel more loaded, and the heartbreak hits like it has real history behind it. The writing did its job, sure, but the performances sell a kind of comfort that’s tough to fake in a world where almost everyone’s weaponizing affection. | © HBO

The Opening Credits Were Almost An Afterthought — 8. Those Iconic Opening Credits Weren’t Always the Plan

It’s hard to imagine the show without that moving map and mechanical skyline, yet the opening sequence wasn’t treated as the sacred centerpiece from day one. Early on, the focus was understandably on getting the world itself to work – casting, accents, locations, budgets, dragons that wouldn’t arrive for a while – and the title sequence had to earn its keep. What ultimately made it essential was function: the credits quickly teach geography, remind you where the story threads are headed this week, and make political distance feel physical. The show kept updating the map as cities fell, armies moved, and new regions mattered, turning the intro into a weekly “where are we again?” cheat code that never felt like homework. | © HBO

Dean Charles Chapman played multiple roles — 7. Dean-Charles Chapman Played Two Different Roles

A lot of fans never clock it because the haircut-and-costume switch does most of the magic, but Dean-Charles Chapman actually appears in Westeros twice as two different people. He first shows up briefly as Martyn Lannister, one of the Lannister boys held at Harrenhal before the story moves on. Then he returns as Tommen Baratheon, stepping into the role as the young king and becoming a far more familiar face as the politics around Cersei tighten. It’s a fun example of how sprawling casts work on long-running dramas: sometimes a small early part becomes a quiet audition for something bigger. | © HBO

100 million for season 6 — 6. Season 6 Was a $100 Million Behemoth

The price tag for Season 6 is often reported around $100 million, and you can see where the money went without needing a spreadsheet. This is the season that juggles massive battles, sprawling location work, heavy effects, and a cast so large it could fill its own small kingdom – sometimes all in the same episode. Think about the scale: the Battle of the Bastards, the destruction in King’s Landing, and the constant travel between major story hubs, each with its own sets, costumes, extras, and VFX demands. HBO was no longer funding a prestige fantasy experiment at that point; it was financing a global flagship series that had to look bigger every year without breaking immersion. | © HBO

The Original Pilot Was Scrapped — 5. The First Pilot Didn’t Make the Cut

Before anyone ever watched “Winter Is Coming” and felt that instant hook, there was an earlier version that simply didn’t work the way HBO needed it to. The original pilot was filmed, tested, and then heavily retooled – enough that it’s often described as a near-total do-over rather than a light edit. Key roles were recast, scenes were rewritten, and the tone was sharpened so the political relationships were clearer right away (because confusion is death in a story this dense). It’s one of the wildest “what if” footnotes in modern TV: a phenomenon that very nearly stumbled out of the gate, then course-corrected into a juggernaut. | © HBO

Daenerys had purple eyes — 4. Daenerys Targaryen Was Meant to Have Violet Eyes

In the novels, Daenerys’ look isn’t just silver hair and dragon vibes – her eyes are famously violet, a Valyrian calling card that makes her stand out the moment she enters a room. The TV version was originally expected to follow that detail, but the production moved away from it for practical reasons: colored lenses can be uncomfortable, distracting, and a genuine headache when you’re acting in wind, sand, heat, and long shoot days. There’s also the consistency problem – once you commit to a signature eye color, you’re signing up to maintain it flawlessly for years. So the show chose performance (and sanity) over perfect book accuracy. | © HBO

Sophie Turner has adopted direwolf — 3. Sophie Turner Adopted Her “Direwolf” in Real Life

One of the sweetest pieces of trivia comes from a moment the show itself played brutally: after Lady’s storyline ended, Sophie Turner ended up adopting the dog who played her. The animal (a Northern Inuit often associated with “direwolf” casting) was known as Zunni, and Turner gave her a home outside the production – an unexpectedly tender aftermath for a series that rarely hands out mercy. It also explains why the Stark kids’ early bond with their wolves feels so natural on camera: those weren’t just CG creatures, they were real animals the young cast spent time with. In a world of dragons and prop swords, that’s a very grounded kind of magic. | © Sophie Turner

Show is banned in Turkey — 2. The Turkish Military Reportedly Banned It From Military Schools

The strangest headline on this list isn’t about dragons or plot twists – it’s about policy. In 2014, reports said the Turkish Armed Forces updated rules for military schools and banned screenings of series like *Game of Thrones* for cadets, citing “student protection” concerns tied to explicit content. It wasn’t a nationwide TV blackout, more a restriction inside military education settings – yet it still made international news because it showed how culturally explosive the show had become outside the usual fandom bubble. Even by prestige-TV standards, that’s a rare milestone: a fantasy drama treated like something that needed regulating, not just reviewing. | © HBO

The Red Wedding Was Inspired By Real Events — 1. The Red Wedding Has Real-World DNA

That stomach-drop feeling wasn’t pulled from thin air; the infamous massacre draws on the same kind of betrayal history is depressingly good at providing. George R. R. Martin has pointed to Scottish events like the Black Dinner and the Massacre of Glencoe as inspiration – stories where hospitality is offered, trust is built, and then violence erupts precisely because the victims feel safe. That’s why the scene lands beyond shock value: it weaponizes tradition, etiquette, and the idea of “protected space.” In other words, the horror isn’t just the bloodshed – it’s the snapping of a social rule you didn’t realize you were relying on. | © HBO

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You’ve seen the battles, survived the betrayals, and probably rewatched the big twists – yet Game of Thrones still has plenty of behind-the-scenes secrets hiding in plain sight. These are the kinds of details that change how you see scenes you thought you knew by heart.

From near-miss casting choices to production tricks and surprising lore connections tied back to George R. R. Martin, this list rounds up the best “wait, seriously?” facts. Quick, fun, and perfect for anyone who can’t resist one more trip to Westeros.

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You’ve seen the battles, survived the betrayals, and probably rewatched the big twists – yet Game of Thrones still has plenty of behind-the-scenes secrets hiding in plain sight. These are the kinds of details that change how you see scenes you thought you knew by heart.

From near-miss casting choices to production tricks and surprising lore connections tied back to George R. R. Martin, this list rounds up the best “wait, seriously?” facts. Quick, fun, and perfect for anyone who can’t resist one more trip to Westeros.