Only one season is left in the Game of Thrones saga, and the show will need to pack an awful lot into the remaining episodes to finish all the stories. Season 7 didn't end all that long ago, but fans are already ready for Season 8 to debut and give us some answers. Some of us may even be driven to hunting for spoilers before too long. That said, the head honcho at HBO has already said that Game of Thrones is going to shoot multiple endings to keeping the real finale a secret. According to one star, however, shooting multiple endings is a really bad idea. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has this to say about filming more than one ending:
Do you think that's true? It seems really stupid to me. I mean if it's true I don't believe it, but I don't know, maybe. I mean, I haven't read the script, so unless they will show several endings that could be a twist, they're not going to waste that money. They know how expensive it is to shoot. You're not going to waste $100,000 a day to shoot something you're not going to use. It's not going to happen.
Tell us how you really feel, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau! The man behind Jaime Lannister didn't mince any words when he spoke to MarieClaire.com about why he thinks Game of Thrones shouldn't go for multiple endings if they aren't all going to be used. His comments come mere weeks after HBO president Casey Bloys said that the folks at Game of Thrones were planning on shooting more than one ending so that there's no definitive answer for people to learn ahead of time. Fans can't spoil themselves if there's no ending in place.
Now, given all the hacks and leaks HBO suffered over the summer while Game of Thrones Season 7 was airing, it's not difficult to understand why people behind the scenes would want to take steps to prevent the grand finale details from getting out prior to the airing. Still, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau certainly has a point about the cost of filming scenes for Game of Thrones. This is a show that already spends a lot of money on locations, visual effects, and actors' salaries. Throwing in days of filming for no reason other than to prevent possible spoilers would cost a pretty penny, and it's not like the real ending leaking would stop the show from scoring crazy ratings. Season 7 was the highest-rated for Thrones to date, and there were full episodes that hit the web early.
Rumor has it that each episode of the final Game of Thrones season will cost at least $15 million each, so the price tag of Season 8 is already quite high. That said, perhaps the cost for multiple endings has already been figured into the budget, and they wouldn't actually go over budget to shell out the cash for extra endings.
Only time will tell. No release date has yet been announced for the next batch of episodes, but our breakdown of what we know so far about Game of Thrones Season 8 can give you a look at what has been released so far. Our fall TV guide can help you plan what to watch while we wait for more Thrones.
