History Trivia / GameOfThrones

* OldShame: Creator/KitHarington is so ashamed of his performance in the unaired pilot that the creators have joked that they'll release it if he complains too much.

* TypeCasting: Littlefinger in the show is more outwardly menacing, matching Creator/AidenGillen's typecasting as slimy villains.

* IKnewIt:
** An interesting case in that the show has confirmed several existing fan theories about the ''books'', or ambiguous situations within them, that had yet to be resolved by the time the episodes aired:
** Loras and Renly are gay lovers. This had already been repeatedly and heavily implied in the books, but never explicitly acknowledged.
** [[spoiler:Littlefinger hid a poison capsule on Sansa, which Olenna uses to kill Joffrey]].
** [[spoiler:Valyrian steel (aka dragonsteel) kills the White Walkers (aka the Others)]]. Jon and Sam discuss this in the books, but the show confirms it first.
** [[spoiler:Craster's sons get turned into White Walkers. While one of Craster's wives implied this happened, they're not a particularly reliable source]].
** For a show-specific spoiler, on-set photos depicting [[spoiler:Meryn Trant and Mace Tyrell in Braavos]] tipped both book and show fans on a major DeathByAdaptation, which did come true in the final Season 5 episode.
** [[spoiler:Melisandre uses her magic to hide her true age, as opposed to aging slowly.]]
** [[spoiler:Melisandre brings Jon Snow back to life.]]
** Since ''Literature/AFeastForCrows'', it was speculated that [[spoiler:Sandor Clegane was still alive. He is.]]
** In the second trailer for Season Six, many fans correctly guessed when Tormund said, "I thought he was the man to lead us through the Long Night. But I was wrong.", he was talking about Mance Rayder instead of Jon. This is proven right in "Battle of the Bastards."
** [[spoiler:Rickon's death in "Battle of the Bastards" was correctly predicted by most fans. Many also guessed that either Wun Wun or Tormund will die]].
** In the Season 6 finale "The Winds of Winter":
*** The biggest and the most known of all theories since the release of ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' was confirmed, that [[spoiler:Lyanna Stark is Jon's mother, and also that the promise Ned made was to take care of Jon. Rhaegar is strongly implied to be his father, but this is not explicitly mentioned. Note that knowledge of Jon's mother's identity was what got David Benioff and Dan Weiss the job adapting the series in the first place. [[AllThereInTheManual Official supplemental material]] for the show [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160629193851/http://www.makinggameofthrones.com/production-diary/got-connections-ned-promise-tower-of-joy-infographic confirms]] that Rhaegar is Jon's father.]]
*** Another Season 6 finale example -- which was no doubt less welcome -- is that [[spoiler:Creator/NatalieDormer made some comments that incited people to speculate that Margaery Tyrell would soon be killed off. This occurred in the Season 6 finale.]] And since [[spoiler:Creator/FinnJones had been cast as Danny Rand in ''Series/{{Iron Fist|2017}}'', Loras would also be a goner for sure.]]
*** It has been a fairly popular fan theory that [[spoiler:Cersei would use the wildfire caches that the Mad King left behind. This is finally made good on when she sets a cache of it to go off underneath the Great Sept of Baelor during the scheduled time for her trial, taking every one of her political adversaries with it]].
** Much like Creator/FinnJones before her, Creator/JessicaHenwick's commitment and much more prominent role in ''Series/IronFist2017'' as Colleen Wing allowed many fans to rightly predict [[spoiler:Nymeria Sand's death]], which happens in Season 7's "Stormborn."
** The Season 7 episode "The Dragon and the Wolf" confirmed several fan theories and the leaked spoilers such as [[spoiler:Sansa exposing Littlefinger and Arya executing him, the collapse of the Wall, Sam and Bran's reunion and their discussion of Jon's heritage, and that Rhaegar and Lyanna were really in love with one another.]]
*** Quite a few people felt vindicated in their complaints about [[spoiler:the Wight Hunt being pointless; even if it succeeded and they brought a wight down to King's Landing ''and'' convinced Cersei of the threat the dead posed, she'd just go back on any truce agreed to anyway. Which is exactly what happens]].
** One theory on WMG.GameOfThronesFinalSeason correctly predicted that [[spoiler: the Night King would be a DiscOneFinalBoss]].

** Peter Dinklage revealed in interviews that Tyrion is in love with Daenerys, something corroborated by the script of the season 6 episode "The Winds of Winter", the leaked scripts of season 7, and [[spoiler:a brief dialogue of the character with Jon in the series finale.]] This is only subtly suggested in the TV series, but it helps to explain many of the actions the character takes as her advisor in the final seasons.

** Creator/CharlesDance has kind words about the show and the showrunenrs, but admitted that he was disappointed by the final season, more specifically with [[spoiler:Bran having been elected king by a committee. He believes that Tyrion would have been a better choice.]]

** Kit Harrington got fed up of having to maintain his famous long curls, not least because obsessive fans and interviewers wouldn't stop bringing them up. Once the series wrapped, he cut it short and later got a buzz cut.

** Kit Harrington broke his ankle around Season 3, so the crew had to use a lot of stand-ins wearing wigs to get around it.

* OldShame: Creator/KitHarrington is so ashamed of his performance in the unaired pilot that the creators have joked that they'll release it if he complains too much.

* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: Or, in this case, season. Benioff and Weiss have admitted in the audio commentary track of the series finale that they consider seasons 4, 6, and 8 their favorites.

** Creator/HafthorJuliusBjornsson is not even 30. It's little trouble to believe him as the ''older'' Clegane brother, despite that Creator/RoryMcCann is nearing 50. It helps that they don't share any scenes until Gregor's transformation, where his face isn't very visible. To be fair, [[TheGiant body type]] was much more of a priority than age when it came to casting.

** Creator/EmiliaClarke obviously got the most of it, what with Daenerys becoming the show's BreakoutCharacter. This has mostly been a series of hits and misses - notable bombs she was in included ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'' (in which critics agreed she was miscast) and ''Film/{{Solo}}'' (the first ''Franchise/StarWars'' film to ever lose money at the box office). But she did win acclaim for ''Film/MeBeforeYou'', earning respect for PlayingAgainstType and starring in a smaller indie project that wasn't a guaranteed hit. Her first film after the show wrapped ''Film/LastChristmas'' was lukewarmly received by critics but a financial success - and her performance was praised. After the incredibly hostile reception to the final season, most critics agreed she was a redeeming factor - so the future does look promising. Furthermore, she's been cast in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse series ''Secret Invasion'' in an unspecified role.

** In 2021, Creator/GemmaWhelan accused the show's notoriously frequent scenes involving sex or nudity of being very poorly directed, with the actors regularly having their concerns about what they'd have to be doing dismissed until the process devolved into chaos. It should be noted that most of the show was made before the industry made a regular practice of including "intimacy coordinators" to help this kind of thing.