Editorial

‘Game Of Thrones’ Director Miguel Sapochnik Wanted To ‘Kill Everyone’ In The Battle Of Winterfell

Game of Thrones (Credit: Helen Sloan/HBO)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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“Game of Thrones” director Miguel Sapochnik had a bold idea for the battle of Winterfell in season eight.

Sapochnik directed “The Long Night” in the final season, which featured the incredible battle between Jon Snow, Daenerys, the Starks and the rest of the good guys against the Night King and the army of the undead. (RELATED: These Are The Sexiest Photos Of ‘Game Of Thrones‘ Star Emilia Clarke On The Internet)

We really didn’t get many deaths at all. Originally, Sapochnik wanted it to be a bloodbath. He said the following on an IndieWire podcast, according to Vanity Fair:

I wanted to kill everyone. I wanted to kill Jorah in the horse charge at the beginning. I was up for killing absolutely everyone. I wanted it to be ruthless, so that in the first 10 minutes you say, ‘All bets are off; anyone could die.’ And David and Dan didn’t want to. There was a lot of back-and-forth on that.

Knowing what we know now about how the show actually ended, killing off everybody at the battle of Winterfell would have been way sweeter.

Sure, we lost Jorah, but that was really the only character to go down who we’d ridden with for years. Everybody else was relatively minor. (RELATED: ‘Game Of Thrones‘ Series Finale ‘The Iron Throne’ Is A Massive Disappointment)

That’s fine. It’s really fine. At the time we thought a massacre would come before the end. With that mindset in play, we didn’t need a bunch going down in “The Long Night.”

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened at all. The ending sucked, Jon Snow murdered his woman Daenerys, the Starks rode off into the sunset and it sucked by every single metric. It was atrociously bad.

 

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Everybody dying during the battle of Winterfell really would have pissed people off. It would have made folks irate, but it would have been a billion and a half times better than what we got.

It’s one of those situations where any alternative is better because we know the reality of how it went down. So, anything sounds more appealing.

If this had happened, there still would have been complaints, but I think I speak for everybody when I say it would have been more satisfying. At least they still let us see Arya slay the Night King.

Thanks for trying, Sapochnik. At least somebody had an idea of what a good ending would have been. Too bad the people in control didn’t agree with him.

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