KUALA LUMPUR: Leading up to the big premiere of popular fantasy adventure series Game Of Thrones’ eighth and final season, HBO has some fascinating facts and figures that may be of interest to fans of the long-running series.
Over the course of its eight seasons, Game Of Thrones has been filmed in 10 countries including Ireland, the United Kingdom, Morocco, Malta, Spain, Croatia, Iceland, the United States and Canada.
Northern Ireland in the UK has played host to 49 filming locations, and its capital Belfast is home to Titanic Studios, which has six shooting stages that housed the interiors of Winterfell, Castle Black, High Hall of the Eyrie, the Sky Cells in the Eyrie, the Hall of Faces, the House of Black and White, the Great Sept of Baelor, the Great Pyramid of Meereen Throne Room and the iconic King's Landing Throne Room.
Overall, the show was filmed over 105,846 days, and a total of 12,986 extras and 2,000 crew members were from Northern Ireland.
It utilised a total of 40 VFX houses in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, China, France, Sweden and India. There were 13,250 VFX shots in the first seven seasons.
Some 1,700 kilograms of rubber were used for costumes, and 1,360 kilograms of metal were used for armoury, with 1,300 shields created.
In addition, GoT had 52,000 bags of paper snow, 148,000 kilograms of propane, 3,000 pyrotechnic effects, 15,000 litres of artificial blood, 20,907 candles, 40 kilometres of rope, 7,010 metres of waxed cotton fabric which made 330 tents, and 80 kilometres of fabric for costumes.
Also thrown in were 1,200 kilometres of repurposed timber, 60,000 sheets of plywood, 20,000,000 screws and bolts, 65,000 bags of plaster, 4,997 litres of wood glue, 1,200 blocks of polystyrene, 1,000 sheets of fire board, 1,600 kilometres of cable, and 120 semi-truck loads of reclaimed beams from warehouses and barns around Europe.
More than 11,000 kilograms of silicone has been used for prosthetics and 500 kilograms of Coffee Mate have been used for pyrotechnics.
A total of 12,137 wigs and hairpieces were used, and the longest prosthetics applications were for the Children of the Forest and the Mountain episode, which took seven hours.
GoT has had 132 Emmy nominations and 47 wins, seven Golden Globe nominations and one win, 18 SAG Award nominations and seven wins, 17 Critics’ Choice Awards nominations and one win, and seven AFI wins.
First aired on April 17, 2011, the popular series has been broadcast in 207 countries and territories.
Malaysian viewers will be able to catch the final season beginning Monday, as it debuts in Asia simultaneously with the US at 9am (local time) with an encore at 10pm exclusively on HBO (Astro 411/431 HD).
The series will also be available on HBO On Demand, and new episodes will premiere every Monday at the same time.
The final season of GoT was filmed in the UK, Spain, Canada and Iceland.