An interview with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss reveals a sickening alternate world where Game of Thrones totally sucked.
Speaking with screenwriters John August (Titan A.E.) and Craig Mazin (Identity Thief) on their Scriptnotes podcast the Game of Thrones creators described the rancid reception received by their original pilot, directed by Tom McCarthy (The Cobbler, Spotlight).
“Watching them watch that original pilot was one of the most painful experiences of my life... as soon as it finished [Mazin] said ‘You guys have a massive problem,’” Weiss said.
Benioff took the assessment to heart.
“I was taking notes, and I had this yellow legal pad, and I just remembered writing in all caps, ‘MASSIVE PROBLEM,’ and it’s all I could think about the rest of the night... [Mazin] didn’t really have any great ideas except that he said ‘change everything.’”
In addition to Jennifer Ehle’s apparent miscasting as Catelyn Stark (replacing her with Michelle Fairley was a substantial part of the massive Game of Thrones pilot reshoot), the original Game of Thrones pilot had an over-the-top death scene for John Arryn.
But the biggest problem was one of basic characterization: no one in that first test screening knew that Jaime and Cersei were brother and sister!
“We ended up reshooting the pilot. 90% of the pilot was reshot,” Weiss said.
The reshoot paid off, with a much more positive reception at the premiere. Mazin, who had delivered the most stinging criticism initially, described his reaction, saying, “ I very specifically remember walking out and I said to [Weiss and Benioff], ‘That is the biggest rescue in Hollywood history.’ Because it wasn’t just that [they] had saved something bad and turned it really good. You had saved a complete piece of shit and turned it into something brilliant. That never happens! ”
Had HBO decided to cut its losses or if the reshoots had never occurred, we could be looking at a very different TV landscape today. Game of Thrones Season 6 premieres April 24, thanks in part to a disastrous pilot screening and the herculean effort taken to fix it.
