“Westworld” viewers last week might have caught an Easter egg cameo of Drogon, the infamous Targaryen dragon from “Game of Thrones.” The surprise appearance has kicked the internet fan theory machine into overdrive, leaving fans wondering if there is a Westeros/Delos connection. But George R.R. Martin thinks that in this case, a cameo should just be seen as a cameo.
“Some people loved the cameo, some hated it, and everybody, it seems to me, is making way too much of it,” Martin wrote on his website. “Hey, folks, c’mon. It was just a bit of fun. A sort of Easter Egg. You all like Easter Eggs in your video games, don’t you?”
The cameo came in a scene where Bernard infiltrates the all-but-bankrupt Delos, which has been brought to a standstill thanks to Dolores’ massacre of the giant theme park’s guests. Bernard passes by a slumped-over Drogon, who in “Westworld” is nothing more than an elaborate host developed for a fantasy-themed section of the park that is now on hold.
The two designers of the dragon, played by “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss in another Easter egg, talk about how they may sell their creation to a buyer in Costa Rica. The scene has prompted some to wonder if the cameo was a hint that the two HBO shows are somehow connected.
Martin says that he didn’t know in advance that the Easter egg was coming, but noted that he did suggest to “Westworld” creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy during the show’s early development that Westeros could potentially exist as a Delos theme park.
“I never wanted a full crossover, never thought that ‘Westworld”s hosts should adventure in Westeros World as they have in Samurai World and War World,” he wrote. “But a brief scene or two could have been fun, and would have been in keeping with the Delos concept. And, hey, I even suggested that they could bring back actors from ‘GOT’, characters we had killed. The hosts die almost weekly, after all.”
While discussing cameos and crossovers, Martin pointed out how he almost had a cameo of his own in “Game of Thrones,” playing a guest at Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s wedding in the show’s pilot. However, that pilot never made it to air, as the wedding was reshot without Martin after the show was greenlit and Emilia Clarke was cast as Daenerys. Martin did, however, keep proof of his time on set: a picture of him in his Essos wedding attire.
“They gave me an enormous hat and really big balls, which might have been some sort of commentary,” he quipped. “A little later, I wanted to be a severed head on the walls of the Red Keep next to Ned Stark (and David & Dan, ideally), but our budget was not so robust first season, and those severed heads are damned expensive. I also campaigned to die horribly at the Red Wedding, which seemed only fair since I was responsible for it, but it was felt that my presence in that powerful, wrenching, bloody scene might have taken the viewers out of the moment. Fair enough. And not wrong.”
Like everyone else, Martin has been stuck at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. But he says that he’s putting his time in quarantine to good use by working on the long-awaited novel “The Winds of Winter,” which will continue the “Song of Ice & Fire” saga along a path much different than the one taken by “Game of Thrones.”
“Truth be told, I am spending more time in Westeros than in the real world, writing every day,” he wrote. “Things are pretty grim in the Seven Kingdoms… but maybe not as grim as they may become here.”