Game of Thrones Showrunners “Embarrassed” by Ice Stunt

Earlier this month, the premiere date of the penultimate season of HBO’s high-fantasy phenomenon Game of Thrones was unveiled via a florid performance event involving melting a block of ice with a burst of fire (Ice and Fire, get it?) ‘fueled’ by fan encouragement on a livestream. While the stunt may have sounded audacious in a pitch meeting, its execution proved to be a damp squib, eliciting more groans than gasps. At the same time as the internet was shaking its collective head at the cringe-inducing non-event, so were the show’s two executive producers.

According to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jamie Lannister in the show, Game of Thrones’ showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were both embarrassed by the stunt; as was he, by the sound of it.

“I spoke to Dan [Weiss] and David [Benioff] about that and they were like, “Oh god… That’s embarrassing”,” Coster-Waldau told The Daily Beast. “Everyone was like, “What’s going to happen?” “What’s going to happen?!” “It’s melting!” “It crashed!” “Oh my god!” It’s like, just walk away… just walk away. It’s just a date! You know, I was actually thinking, “Is there going to be a backlash and people will think, ‘F**k you guys for that!’” but that’s really happened with every time the show kills off a major character: Never again! F**k you! I’m never going to watch this show! and, you know, they keep coming back.

Season 7 of Game of Thrones premieres on 16^th July on HBO.