House of the Dragon may be a prequel to Game of Thrones, but it seems set to correct the later-set original show's mistakes, notably when it comes to the less-than-impressive look of its seat of power, the Iron Throne. Interestingly, it has been revealed that the show's version of the royal seat contains prop swords from other genre-similar releases.
Miguel Sapochnik, who co-created and co-runs the series with Ryan Condal, revealed some behind-the-scenes details about the Iron Throne to EW. It seems that House of the Dragon's reimagined rendition of the Iron Throne -- the menacing seat located in Westeros' capital, King's Landing, in the great hall of main castle the Red Keep -- was constructed of swords taken from similarly quasi-medieval offerings, notably the Netflix series The Witcher and the 2016 live-action video game movie Warcraft. The move was made out of necessity since there was apparently a shortage of swords with which to finish the flesh-piercing furniture. By the time of completion, Sapochnik estimated that around 2,500 swords were used and/or melted down to make the signature set piece.
"Literally we had to put [up] fences when we first built it," Sapochnik said. "Some of them are real swords. It is as dangerous as it is [described] in the books." Indeed, dangerous was always the key word when it came to the Iron Throne. Those whose only familiarity with the chair comes from watching Game of Thrones are likely unaware that its television appearance -- menacing as it may be -- pales in comparison to the prose description of author George R.R. Martin in the source material A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which describe an astoundingly tall seat made from thousands of blades taken from the hands of defeated enemies of the royal Targaryen family. In fact, the sword-strewn structure is supposed to stand tall enough in the great hall to block sunlight from the giant windows behind it.
Of course, the Iron Throne of the original HBO series was only a functional seat elevated on a dais, with the back aligned with a handful of swords. Because of this, Martin has famously took the Game of Thrones showrunners to task over its onscreen look, notably in a now-famous interview with 92Y. "I state repeatedly in the book that the Iron Throne is huge… huge," Martin said. “It towers over the room like a great beast, and it’s ugly, it’s asymmetric. It was put together by blacksmiths, not craftsmen and experts in furniture manufacture.”
Consequently, Sapochnik, who comes into House of the Dragon as a folk hero amongst the fans for his directorial work on action-packed Game of Thrones episodes such as "Battle of the Bastards" and "Hardhome," really wanted to create a version of the Iron Throne that closely aligns with Martin's vision -- at least within reasonable safety measures. Moreover, the fact that swords from genre competitors like The Witcher and Warcraft were used to create the menacing monstrosity of a chair is almost poetic since the series-imported props can be seen as spoils of war (albeit a different kind of war) akin to the ones the Targaryens used to create and expand it in Martin's story canon.
House of the Dragon is set to premiere on HBO on August 21.
Source: Entertainment Weekly