EW’s “Two Hundred and Forty Hours In Westeros”

The title may be poetic, but it’s also slightly misleading. James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly doesn’t just spend 240 hours in Westeros, he spends a decent chunk of that time in Essos too. The huge cover story–the one we’ve been seeing all those quotes drop from over the last week or two–is finally online, and it’s as huge as you might expect. There’s everything from actor interviews to dialogue snippets to casual mentions of certain scenes that should probably have the words SPOILER ALERT hovering over them.

A couple of highlights from the magnum opus that we’re previously released are below…

First up, from Croatia, a snippet of dialogue that continues the conversation seen here.

Tyrion: “A drunken dwarf will never be a savior of the Seven Kingdoms.”
Varys: “You have your father’s instincts for politics and you have compassion.”
Tyrion: “Compassion? I killed my lover with my bare hands and I shot my own father with a crossbow.”
Varys: “I never said you were perfect.”
Tyrion: “What is it you want, exactly?”
Varys: “Peace, prosperity. A land where the powerful do not prey on the powerless…a ruler loved by millions with a powerful army and the right family name.”
Tyrion: “Good luck finding him.”
Varys: “Who said anything about him?”

The above scene was apparently difficult to film. The boats on the Adriatic Sea below kept honking, causing Colenth Hill to ask why the show couldn’t just close Croatia properly for their shooting schedule.

Speaking of closing things properly for the shooting schedule, Hibberd marvels at how Spain bent over backwards for the production, allowing them to close the main tourist attraction, the Alcazar of Seville, for nearly two weeks straight. But it was apparently worth it. Alexander Siddig, new to the production, marvels at the lack of green screen and how immersed he is in the space. (Also, it should be noted, that Hibberd’s reveal that Siddig’s character Doran Martell is in a wheelchair is the first time anyone has mentioned that outright.) Here’s another snippet of a scene with him and Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma.)

“Everywhere women tear their hair and men cry out in rage, the same question on every tongue: What will Doran DO!?” Ellaria yells. “What will the prince do to avenge his murdered brother?”

Sadly, we do not find out how Siddig answers.

In Croatia, people might not bend over backwards, but what’s more difficult is the Westerosi tourists trying to get a glimpse of the show in action, whom Hibberd dubs “the watchers on the wall.” He then gets into talking about a certain Cersei scene that will be coming up towards the end of the season. Headey won’t discuss it, but she does say that taking over after Tywin’s death is not easy for her. “Sadly, she doesn’t really know much about their finances and political allies,” Headey says. “She doesn’t care about that, she just has too much hatred for certain people, so she doesn’t help her cause and she invests in the wrong people.”

Which might explain where the “sending Jaime to Dorne” deviation from the books comes from. In Spain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau admits that Jaime’s guilt over releasing Tyrion also plays a role. “He’s grieving for his father, he has to deal with the consequences at the end of last season and just wants to make things right,” Coster-Waldau says. “I think there’s also a part of him that doesn’t mind getting out of town.”

Meanwhile, in Belfast, Hibberd reveals that those rumors about Season 5 being delayed due to the show going over schedule were founded in truth. The show did almost miss the submission deadline:

The team shot 202 days and delivered the completed episodes to HBO later than ever. A couple of action scenes were partly to blame. One was that Osuna arena fight, while another was a Northern battle that ranks as the most complicated, visual-effects-heavy sequence the show has yet put to film—17 days spent shooting one sequence. “We ran up against the absolute limit of how many days we can shoot in a year,” Weiss says. That’s why, when fans demand more episodes per year, the showrunners reply: “We can’t.”

But the quotes from the cast filming in Belfast are what really take the cake. Along with the by-now-famous quote from an actor who is not named about being killed off, Kit Harington is asked about Melisandre, with whom the show will be playing up an attraction angle. Harington answers: “I find it endlessly funny that he really fancies redheads.”

In Belfast, we learn that Dany’s teenage dragons are partly responsible for Game of Thrones’ budget expansion. (The on-set joke: “What do dragons eat?” “Money!”) But teenage dragons are just one of her problems. “We haven’t seen a season like this for Daenerys since season 1. There are huge pitfalls for her,” [Clarke] says.

And that only scrapes the surface. For the full story, including how Alfie Allen signs his autographs (hint, it’s not so safe for work), and a few other NSFW tidbits, check out the full longform story at EW.com.

• Published on 03/31/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:05 PM CDT