Warning: There are major, sexy spoilers from “Game of Thrones” Season 7 below.
The Season 7 finale of “Game of Thrones” chock full of memorable moments — from Littlefinger finally getting his comeuppance to Jon and Daenerys engaging in, arguably, the most awkward incest sex of the entire series. That’s thanks to, in part, Jeremy Podeswa, who directed the widely watched episode. (We also interviewed him earlier this season for Episode 1).
While the scripts were written by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Podeswa managed to put his own spin on certain scenes. One he’s proud of is the flashback to the wedding of Rhaegar and Lyanna — as interspersed with both Bran finding out about Jon’s true parentage and then Jon engaging in intercourse with… his aunt.
“My contribution is making it cinematic and organically blending these different elements,” he said in a phone interview with TheWrap. “There’s a dreaminess to the sequence in a way… an almost dreamy uniting of Jon and Dany because there’s this cosmic force that’s bringing them together.” He said that combining this with the stories of the two legendary figures in “Game of Thrones” lore, and Bran using his powers to put himself into the memory, the scene became “mythic.”
Here’s what Podeswa had to say about other significant scenes in the finale:
On Season 7 fan service
If “Game of Thrones” Season 7 is going to be remembered for anything (besides, you know, the incest), it’s going to be how fans got to watch all these disparate characters come together for the first time. In the finale, Team Daenerys met up with Team Cersei in the Dragonpit, so we got to see, not only Cersei and Daenerys meeting, but the reunions of the Hound and the Mountain, and Tyrion and Cersei.
Podeswa told us he was never worried that the reunion scenarios would come off as empty fan service. And he credited the scripts.
“The writing is very sophisticated,” said the director. “I think we also very strongly believe there’s a reason everything happens. It’s not there to satisfy the fan’s reasons to see something… In many ways, those stories converge. The strands of the various narratives are getting more and more tightly woven. Once there’s a common enemy, then all the feuding parties have to get together to fight the big fight. It’s about convergence. Those things are very satisfying for an audience who’s been faithful to the show to witness.”
On that Littlefinger shocker
Weiss and Benioff said in a behind-the-scenes featurette following the episode that it was important to trick the audience into thinking that there was going to be a horrible end for one of the Stark sisters. Podeswa echoed their statements, saying how it was important “not to tip the hand at all until the moment Sansa turns to Littlefinger.”
Podeswa said he put a lot of the attention on the actors and their performances.
“I think what’s great in the performances all around is you feel there’s an inevitability in how the scene’s going to play out and soon everything is up in the air,” he said.
Sophie Turner as Sansa and Maisie Williams as Arya obviously do their part as they keep their true motives close to the chest. However, Podeswa especially praises Aiden Gillen’s performance as Littlefinger slowly realizes that he can’t talk his way out of his eventual execution.
“The pleasure and the horror of the scene is in seeing it play out and seeing the tables turned on Littlefinger that is, at first, very satisfying,” he said.
This, of course, came after seven seasons of scheming and killing off many, many characters. “It was also seeing how horrific that can really be and he’s vulnerable in a way we’ve never seen before,” added Podeswa.
On the final dragon sequence
Podeswa said he had a lot of freedom when it came to directing the final episode. It’s 81-minute runtime wasn’t a matter of contention for the network, which in the past has allowed the “Game of Thrones” showrunners to tell the story they want in however long it may take.
“There was a lot of material in this. I was concerned that things would have to be dropped just for time,” he said.
The final sequence at the Wall, where the dragon-turned-White-Flyer Viserion used its breath to break down the magical barrier between the White Walkers and Westeros, took a few months to complete. Podeswa said it needed a lot of conceptualizing and working with storyboard artists, the visual effects department and other people — he called it R&D — in order to get it just right.
“The sequences are as complex as you would imagine,” he said, adding that he had to figure out how much of it needed to be practical and how much needed to be CGI. “You just try to wrangle it into the best possible iteration of what it was meant to be. The script is up to a point where you really have to take a leap of imagination and figure out what the audience is going to see.”