Video: Game of Thrones has concluded its deep dive into how it’s made with HBO’s final instalment of the behind-the-scenes series The Game Revealed, which goes into how they brought the wight from Beyond the Wall to un-life. And for the designers, singling out a single wight was tougher than building an army.
Image: HBO
“Strangely enough, one wight [is] way more complicated than 10,000 wights,” episode director Jeremy Podeswa said. “You’re dealing with a wight with a lot more detail.”
The clip shows just how much work went into showcasing a zombie that had the attention of the entire Seven Kingdoms, and it’s very impressive. They used a mix of practical and digital effects, with two separate stunt performers playing the top and lower halves of the wight’s sliced-up body. You see how stunt performer Michael Byrch gave an extremely dedicated performance, especially for a character that was largely digitised. You can even hear his muffled zombie cries underneath his mask, which were replaced with shrieks.
Also, got to give a shout-out to Lena Headey, who sounds positively over the moon that she got to act alongside an undead monster: “For me, being a horror nerd, I was slightly giggly. I was like, ‘Oh! My very own zombie.’”
[YouTube]