The battle scenes in Game of Thrones have grown to be of legendary quality. Think back to the “Battle of Blackwater Bay” in season two, then compare it to more recent episodes like “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards” – Blackwater Bay doesn’t even hold a candle to the other two, not just because the budget has increased, but because the people working behind the camera have evolved as well.
Which makes it a good thing according to showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, that their planned battle scene in season one involving The Mountain and Tyrion wound up being cut:
“Thinking back to season one, there was supposed to be this big battle,” showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss told the UFC Unfiltered podcast.
“Tyrion Lannister follows The Mountain into combat – and we were really excited. We were going to have the camera at Peter Dinklage’s eye level and have him follow this giant, The Mountain, into battle and just see everything.”
“…Frankly we just run out of money and we couldn’t do it. So that was one of the big battles from the book that we hoped we could get on screen and we never managed to do it.”
The two writers were in agreement that it was “probably better” that the scene never made it to the final cut, as “it never would have measured up to what we were able to do later.”
With another whole year to wait for new episodes of Thrones still ahead of us (damn the new summertime premiere window), let’s hope that what they pull off this coming season manages to blow even season six out of the water.
[H/T Digital Spy]