The Game Of Thrones battle scene that could have been
A massive direwolf attack sounds like the stuff of dreams (or nightmares). It turns out, however, that such a thing could have been featured in season eight of Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones may be over, but new tidbits are still coming out about the final season. In an interview on the Filmaker Toolkit Podcast, Miguel Sapochnik, the director of season 8 episode 3 (white-walker battle episode), revealed an idea for the battle that was ultimately cut, according to a report from Digital Spy.
“It was a much bigger sequence than we shot,” Sapochnik said. “And there were many things that happened that people would’ve been so happy to have happen, attacks of direwolves, crazy stuff. At some point you’re like, 50 direwolves attacking an undead dragon does not make a good movie.”
Upon hearing this, one might expect fans to have one of two immediate reactions, depending on their level of fandom.
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“Smaller” fans: This would have been awesome! Too bad they didn’t do this; I guess the CGI was too expensive. Also, how could wolves attack a dragon?…they can’t fly.
“Bigger” fans: Wait, where would all these direwolves have come from? The only ones we’ve seen belong to the Stark children, and Ghost (Jon’s direwolf) is the only one present at Winterfell for the battle. Also, how could wolves attack a dragon?…they can’t fly.
It’s very possible that there are more direwolves than those belonging to the Starks, but it seems inconceivable that 50 would show up out of no where to fight the white-walkers. It feels more likely that Sapochnik misspoke, and instead meant to say “50 wolves.”
Why would 50 wolves make more sense? Perhaps the showrunners considered having Nymeria’s wolfpack join the fight. Nymeria, Arya’s direwolf is last seen in season 7 as a leader of a pack of (normal) wolves.
It was surely theorized that Arya would reunite with Nymeria one last time in the final season, and the battle could have been a fitting time for this. I’m not sure Nymeria’s wolfpack consisted of as many as 50 wolves, but perhaps this was just an exaggeration.
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An interesting question is whether this “direwolf attack” idea was purely a show creation or if it came from George R.R. Martin himself. If the latter was the case, one might expect a form of this scene in a future book (if it is ever finished).
(Source: Digital Spy)