The massive Battle of Winterfell in the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones saw many characters lose their lives. However, if the director of that episode, Miguel Sapochnik, had gotten his way, many more characters would have died in Episode 3 (titled “The Long Night”).
SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones . Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed all of the episodes in Season 8 and wish to avoid spoilers.
Episode 3 of Season 8 of Game of Thrones saw a massive battle occurring at Winterfell as the North gathered to defend Westeros against the Night King (Vladimír Furdík) and his dead army of White Walkers and wights. During this battle, many characters lost their lives as they struggled against the massive army before Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) could sneak in and stab the Night King, which instantly eradicated his entire army.
While the loss was great and the start of Episode 4 of Game of Thrones Season 8 saw many characters struggling with the loss of life as they buried their dead, according to the Episode 3 director, he wanted everyone to die during the Battle of Winterfell.
“I wanted to kill everyone,” Sapochnik told Vanity Fair .
“I wanted to kill Jorah in the horse charge at the beginning. I was up for killing absolutely everyone. I wanted it to be ruthless, so that in the first 10 minutes you say, ‘All bets are off; anyone could die.’”
However, the show’s creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, refused to allow that to happen in Episode 3. And, after a lot of heated discussion between Benioff, Weis, and Sapochnik, the director finally came to an agreement about the characters fates.
While the creators for Game of Thrones didn’t agree with Sapochnik and the carnage he wanted to display in Episode 3 of the final season, they were on board with some of it. Instead of murdering everyone in the massive Battle of Winterfell, Sapochnik reveals that the creators saved up some of the slaughter for the penultimate episode, titled “The Bells.” This episode saw the second epic battle in Season 8 in which many more characters died as a result of conflict as Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) battled it out to decide who would end up on the iron throne and become the ultimate ruler of Westeros.
Season 8 was the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones . HBO is currently in production on a prequel series set in the same universe as Game of Thrones . However, no release date has yet been announced for this new series.
