Game of Thrones is filled to the brim with memorable and macabre murders, but have you ever wondered which one cost the most to film? Probably not, unless you’re an accountant or an aspiring horror movie maker looking to crib some ideas from the masters of death. But it’s still an intriguing question, one that was answered by showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff at their recent SXSW panel.
You’d think maybe Oberyn Martell getting his face smashed in — which, by the way, was even more brutal in its original form than what ended up on the screen — would top the list. Imagine how much money it must have cost to get Joffrey’s face just that perfect shade of purple. Fortunately pig guts are cheap, because they sure do use a lot of those in scenes involving Khal Drogo and Gregor Clegane. Then which death could it be? It turns out the most expensive death scene went down in season five finale, when Arya Stark stabs out both of pedophile kingsguard member Meryn Trant’s eyes and slits his throat.
The reason it cost so much?
“She couldn’t really poke out his eyes,” Benioff said.
The SXSW panel was full of great jokes and fun facts about the show like which scene the creators consider the worst in the series, and which unlikely musicians will be making cameos in future seasons. It also locked in the fact that the eigth and final season of Game of Thrones will only last six episodes, meaning we’re going to get tantalizingly close to the end of this epic tale once the show returns in July.
