Game of Thrones Season Eight Includes a Battle Scene So Bonkers, it Took 55 Nights to Shoot

As the long wait for Game of Thrones’ eighth and final season continues, we are forced to subsist on the occasional, precious crumbs of detail coming out of HBO’s super-secretive shoot, and the latest-hype boosting nugget out of Westeros is a tasty one, indeed.

Assistant director Jonathan Quinlan shared, in a since-deleted Instagram post, a photo of a producers’ note thanking the show’s cast and crew for their work on an insane-sounding shoot. The note details the creation of the biggest battle scene in Game of Thrones history, one that took “55 straight nights” to shoot and resulted in “something that’s never been done before.” According to Watchers on the Wall, Quinlan wrote in his Instagram post, “Says it all. 55 consecutive nights. 11 weeks. 3 locations. You’ll never again see anything like it.”

Thank you note by Jonathan Quinlan, Assistant Director. pic.twitter.com/3wEckkQIy4

— Zee. (@whatsis123) April 8, 2018

As WotW’s Luka Nieto notes, “These two and a half months of shooting more than double the previous record for a Game of Thrones battle shoot,” describing the resulting sequence as “the biggest, most expensive action scene we’ve ever seen on TV.” Giddy up, folks.

Read the full producers’ note below. Game of Thrones returns in 2019.

This is for the Night Dragons.

For enduring 55 straight nights. For enduring the cold, the snow, the rain, the mud, the sheep shit of Toome and the winds of Magheramorne.

When tens of millions of people around the world watch this episode a year from now, they won’t know how hard you worked. They won’t care how tired you were or how tough it was to do your job in sub-freezing temperatures.

They’ll just understand that they’re watching something that’s never been done before.

And that’s because of you.

Thank you
The Producer Types