Sunday night starts the last season of Game of Thrones. When GoT started was the online battle for the viewer to even begin. Meanwhile, the supply is fragmented. Will there ever be another series with the same impact?
Big, bigger, biggest. Read an interview about the last season of Game of Thrones (GoT), and the superlatives are flying around the ears. If there is doubt about the scale of the epic fantasyserie …
Big, bigger, biggest. Read an interview about the last season of Game of Thrones (GoT), and the superlatives are flying around the ears. If there is doubt about the scale of the epic fantasyserie, then take the last promotieronde of the cast and the crew that way.
They have the particular, on the making of an episode in which the allegedly longest consecutive fight scene is ever filmed for a movie or tv. The Great Battle of Winterfell, probably more than an hour will take, brings virtually all the remaining characters together to fight against the ultimate evil: the army of White Walkers (frozen zombies) under the leadership of the merciless Night King.
The recordings for that battle lasted for 55 nights, with a crew of 750 people. The actors can’t tell about plotontwikkelingen, but about the debilitating withdrawals. “We pray that we never have to do”, told the actor Rory McCann (The Hound) on the set at Entertainment Weekly. Ian Glen (Jorah Mormont) called it ” the most unpleasant experience I made during the making of this series have had.”
Six times (long) look
There are only six episodes to go, some with a running time of an hour and a half. Six times the bombastic titelsequentie in which the camera flies over a map of the fictional continent Westeros – and places beyond.
Then we know who the power struggle in Westeros has won. King in the North Jon Snow, dragon mother Daenerys Targaryen and the villainous queen Cersei Lannister seem to be the biggest contenders, but fans know that in the sinister world of the Game of Thrones characters rarely get what they want. The throne at the end of the season just destroyed by dragons or ijszombies.
The end of the chicken with the golden eggs
That showrunners David Benioff and Daniel Weiss the story after eight seasons of finishing is anyway to applaud. It may not be an easy choice for HBO to put an end to their chicken – or should we say: dragon – with the golden eggs. While other series because of financial motives, season after season continue to persist, Game of Thrones is a worthy end to be awarded. HBO continues to be the world of Westeros, however, in the picture, with a spin-off, that the past of the fictional continent will continue to deepen. The showrunners have also something what author George R. R. Martin but not seems to work: he published in 1996 the first part of his book series A Song of Ice and Fire, where the series is based, but is not yet ready. Or he series ever off the playing is the question.
The latest blockbuster series
The finale of the series is the end of an era. It could be the last blockbuster series in this form, one each week on largely the same time is being viewed. While series, thanks to the emergence of providers such as Netflix more and more to be gebinged, the fans of Game of Thrones each week for an episode.
The measuring success purely on the basis of viewing figures is difficult. The last episode of season 7 brought in the U.S., 16.5 million viewers, very high for pay-tv channels like HBO.
The influence of Game of Thrones on pop culture is, however, obvious. Even people that the series has never seen, are at the height of its reputation: everyone in the series may be dead, also the great hero. Quotes like “Winter is coming” and “You know nothing, Jon Snow” are well established.
47 Emmy’s
With this last season is also the period in which HBO – The Sopranos, The Wire was master and lord in the area of kwaliteitsseries and almost automatically as a big winner emerged during the Emmy Awards. Game of Thrones has, so far, 47 wins, a record.
In april 2011, when the series began, made Netflix still not even have their own series, the first hit, House of Cards began in 2013, the year in which the American media also came to the Netherlands. Since then, the series offer an explosive growth. And in this area is 2019 is an important year: Apple, Disney, and Warner Media come with their own streaming services. Or because of this fragmentation there ever a series with the same impact as GoT is the question.
Even HBO itself seems now, under the new owner, AT&T, and in the battle with Netflix, more series to want to produce in shorter amount of time than a very long time to do on the production of a small series of extremely high quality.
During the galapremière of the slotseizoen, last week in New York, said the director of HBO Casey Bloys about the legacy of the series: “If there is now a maker with us, walk with a crazy idea, we don’t say more that we don’t know what we need. Then we say: here are five different ways you can do that.’ Ambitious and complex ideas so the room, although certainly not a guaranteed hit. So is the hyped sci-fi-western Westworld HBO after two seasons are still not out of the shadow of GoT. Great series, but no sensation.
At the same time, brings such a great production also new risks. It takes a lot of time to make and delays lie in wait.
When Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, in 2017 the strategy of streaming service Amazon Prime Video wanted to change, was the command to his staff, according to trade magazine Variety, is clear: Bezos wanted to make a own Game of Thrones. Amazon bought, therefore, for 250 million dollars the rights of the Lord of the Rings, the book series that George R. R. Martin had a large impact. The deal will, according to trade magazine Hollywood Reporter lead to the most expensive tv series ever made. Amazon is going five seasons, the cost will rise to $ 1 billion or more.
Recognition plays a role. The Lord of the Rings films by director Peter Jackson proved that the general public is hot can be made for epic fantasy. Still, it remains an expensive gamble, you can’t simply a new mega-hit requirements.
The original pilot was a disaster
Game of Thrones was no gerandeerde hit, the original pilot was a disaster. Each season, the audience was larger, especially thanks to a buzz that grew up around the intelligent intrigue, butchered characters and spectacular scenes.
The bar was on the strand still higher established with episodes like ‘Hardhome’ (season 5), ‘Battle of the Bastards’ (season 6) and ‘The Spoils of War ” (season 7) as a preliminary highlights. In the beginning were battles still out of the picture fought to save cost, now no need to do that more. The budget of the last season is a 15 million dollar per episode.
Naked as a trademark
What is less in the picture in the last few years: the naked bodies. Gastacteur Ian McShane summed up the series, and even once as ‘tits and dragons’. In addition to abusive violence was having sex for a long time a trademark of the series. Until Benioff and Weiss criticism received on their dealings with female characters. Especially the rape of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) in season 5 was controversial: why would the viewer that horrendous humiliation to face?
In a profile In Rolling Stone defended Turner the choice, but it still seems a sensitive point for the creators. Benioff and Weiss wanted no questions about the answer.
In this last season, there are several strong women, also in powerful positions. Dragon mother Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), a beloved character that also became victim of rape, for example, great chance at the Iron Throne. There are no guarantees: a series that is built on unpredictability can also one last surprise behind the hand.
A who’s who in ‘Game of Thrones’ can be found here.
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