HBO’s Casey Bloys Says Game Of Thrones Will Film Multiple Endings
The producers of Game Of Thrones may have found a way to combat spoilers and leaks, leading up to its sure-to-be-epic season eight conclusion: shooting multiple versions of the series finale.
The Morning Call originally reported the news, stating that HBO’s president of programming Casey Bloys had announced, “I know in Game Of Thrones, the ending, they’re going to shoot multiple versions of the ending of season eight to try to avoid leaks.”
Game Of Thrones Struggles Hacks and Leaks
The plan makes sense, especially given the trouble HBO has had with hacks recently: last month the network was the victim of a massive cyberattack, which leaked entire GOT episodes to the public. While these leaks did next to nothing to diminish the show’s ratings—quite the opposite, in fact, as viewership hit record highs—they still ruined things for the casual viewer who lives his or her life in fear of spoilers. And goodness knows, this season, there were plenty of spoilers to be had.
For a show that’s enjoyed uninterrupted success for seven seasons, anticipation looking forward to its conclusion is as high as humanly possible. After all, somebody might finally win the actual “game of thrones” (or they could all just die, ‘cause winter is finally here, y’all, just saying). Pretty big deal. Not to mention a show as massive and enduring as GOT has an undeniably large fan base. And if fandoms are known for anything, it’s for being eagle-eyed. If Kit Harington cuts his hair, they’re going to notice. If Maisie Williams gets a tan, they’re going to notice. Why is Lena Headey in New York today, shouldn’t she be filming in Spain right now? OMG, Kristofer Hivju trimmed his beard, does that mean Tormund is dead?
Bloys seems to understand this pretty well, as he explained the reasoning behind filming multiple endings: “You have to do that on a long show. Because when you’re shooting something, people know. So they’re going to shoot multiple versions so that there’s no real definitive answer until the end.”
Seems like a pretty good idea, but I just really hope that when the season eight DVD or Blu-Ray or whatever the kids watch these days gets released that it includes all the alternate endings, Clue style.