George R.R. Martin, the author whose work was the basis for Game of Thrones, revealed all of his cameos that were cut from the hit HBO series.
In the show's pilot, Martin was a guest at Daenerys Targaryen's wedding to Khal Drogo, he revealed on his blog. "They gave me an enormous hat and really big balls," he wrote, "which might have been some sort of commentary." However, that scene was shot with Tamzin Merchant, who was the original Daenerys before Emilia Clarke landed the role. Once this role changed, so did the wedding scene, which led to a reshoot, and Martin was left on the cutting room floor.
Martin also shared some other instances where he almost appeared in the show. He wanted to be a severed head on the walls of the Red Keep right next to Ned Stark. As Martin put it, "those severed heads are damned expensive, so this idea was shelved since the first season's budget couldn't afford the extra heads."
"I also campaigned to die horribly at the Red Wedding," he said of his next attempt to get into the show, "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."
Martin is currently co-creating a new Game of Thrones spinoff called House of the Dragon. Ryan Condal is his co-creator on the project, and the pilot is set to be directed by Thrones veteran Miguel Sapochnik. The series will air on HBO with a 10-episode season and is expected to arrive in 2022.