The Original Game of Thrones Pilot Has Still Never Been Seen (And It’s Apparently Terrible)

HBO’s Game of Thrones is now infamous for its disappointing ending, but fans often forget about its rocky start. The show had a lot working against it in the beginning – including a massive stumble while filming the pilot episode, which nearly stopped the entire series in its tracks. The pilot was entirely re-shot with almost no footage carried over into the final version, and to this day, the original unaired pilot for Game of Thrones has never been released. This re-shoot speaks to the unprecedented scale of this series and the faith HBO had in its success. Read on for the history of Game of Thrones’ infamous original pilot.

Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss became interested in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire in 2006, and immediately began working on a TV adaptation. For reference, the fourth book in the series, A Feast for Crows, was published in November of 2005, while the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, was published July of 2011. Game of Thrones premiered on HBO in April of 2011, so that’s the context in which all this early work was taking place.

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A Song of Ice and Fire was already very successful at the time, and Martin was trying to be judicious with the film rights. He did not think the series would work as a movie, saying that he had left his own screenwriting career and returned to novels specifically to escape the restrictions of budgets, filming schedules, and so on. However, Benioff and Weiss won Martin over with their pitch, particularly with HBO as their intended venue for the show. HBO put the show into development in 2007 and ordered a pilot in late 2008.

The First Pilot’s Legacy

The original Game of Thrones pilot was shot in 2009, on a budget of at least $5 million and perhaps as much as $10 million, according to the trades at the time. Several key characters were cast differently, including Catelyn Stark who was played by Jennifer Ehle instead of Michelle Fairley, and Daenerys Targaryen who was played by Tamzin Merchant instead of Emilia Clarke. Accounts from the few people who saw this version say that the overall visual style and tone were very different, as well.

For several years, all fans knew about this unaired pilot was that it did not do well in test screenings. It doesn’t seem to have been shown to focus groups, but instead to internal critics at HBO. Much of what we heard came from a 2016 interview Benioff and Weiss did with Vanity Fair, where they joked about their “piece of s— pilot.” It was reportedly HBO that “demanded” a re-shoot, as well as changes to the cast and director lineup.

When Game of Thrones ended, leaving a dragon-sized void in pop culture to fill, the unaired pilot became a point of interest for those picking over every detail about the franchise. We also got some new details about it in James Hibberd’s 2020 book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Untold Story of the Epic Series. Much of the specifics we have come from interviews in that book.

Known Differences

According to those who saw the original pilot back in 2009, a big part of the reason Daenerys was re-cast was because Merchant did not have great on-screen chemistry with Jason Momoa. In hindsight, this reasoning seems flawed since Khal Drogo doesn’t stay in the story for too long, but at the time, there was no guarantee the pilot would go to series — let alone eight seasons. Meanwhile, Ehle reportedly decided that the show would be too much of a commitment, as the cast was required to live in Northern Ireland for long periods of time while shooting.

Some indicate that the change of directors was more significant than any casting swaps. First-time TV director Tom McCarthy was swapped out for HBO veteran Tim Van Patten for the pilot, and viewers reportedly felt that McCarthy had struggled with the epic fantasy genre. For example, the original cut reportedly downplayed the significance of the direwolves that Robb Stark and Jon Snow find outside Winterfell. Bryan Cogman recalled “running around the set yelling to anyone who would listen: ‘These are direwolves! No one has seen these in a million years! This is like seeing dinosaurs! It’s not like finding puppies!’”

Hibberd also spoke to Mark Addy, who played King Robert Baratheon and recalled that no one knelt during his arrival to Winterfell in the original pilot. He felt that this made it harder to project power and authority as a king, saying, “People have to give you that by showing subservience. It has to be afforded to you by others.”

Other cast members also joked about their original costumes — Jack Gleeson said that the first pilot showed Joffrey with a bowl cut he did not care for, while Lena Headey said that Cersei initially had an updo an a lot of fur clothing. Harry Lloyd said that his first silver wig as Viserys Targaryen was shorter, and hard to take seriously.

Finally, a big complaint about the original pilot was that its exorbitant budget didn’t show in the settings. The castles, palaces, and the Dothraki caravan were not shown in great detail, and there were no wide establishing shots to make Westeros feel real. This was corrected in the re-shoot, and became one of the show’s defining characteristics.

Impact on the Story

These changes sound silly in hindsight, but some viewers also gave insight into how they changed the overall feel of the story. Some felt that the original pilot failed to capture the show’s political drama, which might be its most defining characteristic. Part of the problem was that important dialogue was left on the cutting room floor to make conversations feel more natural, but that left viewers without some essential information. For example, the original pilot did not convey that Cersei and Jaime are twins, so when they are caught having sex at the end of the episode, it just seems like an affair rather than a major shock.

At the same time, the pilot did have one Easter egg that fans regret losing in the re-shoot — a cameo by Martin himself. The author appeared as Pentoshi nobleman at Dany’s wedding to Drogo in the original pilot, but when it came time for re-shoots, he was unable to travel back to the set again. It’s a shame that Martin never made it into the show again, though he has since made up for it with an incredible cameo in House of the Dragon.

‘Lost Media’

By all accounts, it sounds like it was a good thing that the Game of Thrones pilot was re-shot, but many fans are still interested in seeing the original pilot out of curiosity. This is not possible — it has never been aired, released, or even leaked as far as we know. Any copies of the episode are held by HBO, and the network has never show interest in releasing it to the public.

The question of whether we should see this pilot is interesting, with no clear answer. It is regarded by some as a piece of “lost media” — something that hasn’t been professionally archived and preserved for posterity. However, others see it as a first draft, and believe that creators are entitled to bury their early drafts and present their audience only with a finished product.

Interest in this unaired pilot may be driven in part by the simple thirst for more content in this infamously stalled franchise. As mentioned above, A Dance with Dragons was released in 2011 and it is the most recent novel in the main series of A Song of Ice and Fire. The Winds of Winter has been in the works for nearly 14 years now, yet fan interest in it has only grown thanks to the TV show. Fans have based theories and predictions on things as obscure as anonymous descriptions of the unaired pilot of the Game of Thrones spinoff Bloodmoon, so there’s no doubt that this unaired pilot would also spark some conversations in the fandom.

It doesn’t look like the unaired Game of Thrones pilot is coming anytime soon, but you can stream the entire series on Max. Other behind-the-scenes features and bonus content are available in the show’s Blu-ray and DVD releases. A new prequel series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, premieres this year on HBO and Max, followed by House of the Dragon Season 3 next year. Martin’s books are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats, and the author reports that working on The Winds of Winter is still a major priority for him.

Game of Thrones can be streamed on Max.