Things You May Not Know About Game Of Thrones

Over the course of its wildly popular and widely acclaimed eight-season run, millions of people worldwide watched each episode of Game of Thrones, eager to find out which intricate plots would unfold onscreen. But did you know some of the most interesting storylines actually took place behind the scenes? Take a closer look at some of the little-known truths of HBO's fantasy hit. Warning: contains spoilers.

You heard that right: the original pilot episode wasn't that great. HBO executives and producers were so unhappy, they almost ended the show before it began. Actress Sophie Turner said, "We had to re-shoot basically all of it because it was really bad." Showrunners also made major changes to the cast. Notably, Emilia Clarke was brought on to replace Tamzin Merchant in the role of Daenerys Targaryen, and Michelle Fairley took over Catelyn Stark from Jennifer Ehle. The original pilot never aired, which is a shame—we'd really like to see George R.R. Martin's cameo during Daenerys' wedding scene. "It was, sad to say, left on the cutting-room floor," Martin explained. "I was a Pentoshi nobleman in the background, wearing a gigantic hat."

If you're a show-only fan of the series, you might be unaware that one of the most important and celebrated book characters went missing. In the novels, the Red Wedding isn't the end of the story for doomed matriarch Catelyn Stark. Instead, the Freys throw her naked body into the river, where it floats for three days before being recovered by Beric Dondarrion and the Brotherhood without Banners. Beric demands that red priest Thoros of Myr give her the breath of life—as he's already done for Dondarrion countless times. Thoros refuses—it's been too long, he says. Undaunted, Lord Beric bends and gives her the rite himself, which causes him to die as the spark of life passes to Lady Catelyn.

When she rises, her skin is grey and melting in places like tallow, her hair has turned brittle and white, and her face is a mass of shredded wounds filled with clotted black blood—a result of Catelyn raking her face with her fingernails following Robb's death. She cannot speak, because the "bloody bastards cut her throat too deep for that. But she remembers." She remembers, and she hates. Catelyn Stark is dead, and Lady Stoneheart's reign has begun. She becomes the leader of the Brotherhood, and directs them in a bloody campaign of vengeance against Lannisters and Freys.

Why is she so important? Because—spoiler warning—she eventually captures Brienne and Pod, and threatens to hang them if Brienne doesn't betray Jaime and kill him with Oathkeeper. The last we see of the Kingslayer, he's riding off into the wilderness after Brienne tells him she needs his help. Obviously, this storyline is completely different from the direction of the show, which may explain why so many book-readers spent years up in arms over Lady Stoneheart's absence.

Well, sort of. Martin frequently draws from real history for his books, and a notably nasty incident in Scottish history served as inspiration for the infamous Red Wedding in season 3. In 1440, William, the 16-year-old Earl of Douglas and his 10-year-old brother were invited to a feast with James II, the child King of Scotland. The king's advisors dragged the young Earl and his brother outside, gave them a mock trial and then beheaded them both. The incident would later be known as "The Black Dinner." Similarly, the Purple Wedding where Joffrey meets his maker was based on a real incident: the poisoning and death of England's Prince Eustace at a feast in 1153.

In season 6, during the breathtaking cavalry charge of the Battle of the Bastards, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) stands alone on the battlefield as Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) and Umber horsemen ride toward him at breakneck speed. But Snow's army suddenly rushes up behind him, igniting one of the show's most impressive battle scenes. If you thought it had to be green-screen trickery, however, you were wrong. Showrunners revealed in a behind-the-scenes video that those were 80 real, live horses charging Harington at full gallop.

How did producers create that impressive pile of bodies on the battlefield during the battle for Winterfell in season 6? A behind-the-scenes video from HBO reveals that all the bodies were actually life-sized dummies, not computer-generated fakery. The crew acquired hundreds of mannequins, dressed them in appropriate House Umber and House Bolton armor, then coated them in mud and fake blood and piled them in a gigantic heap. Even the dead horses among the men are dummies equipped with saddles.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and her brother Viserys (Harry Lloyd) have purple eyes and Game of Thrones showrunners planned for them to have them on the show as well. Unfortunately, the purple contacts affected Clarke so badly that producers decided to ditch the contacts and re-shoot the scenes with her natural baby blues. And that's not the only eye-opening tale from the set: During most of season six, Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) is blinded during her training with the Faceless Men. In order to accurately portray the role, Williams wore completely opaque 16mm-thick contact lenses for her speaking scenes, and a pair with only a pinhole in the center during fight scenes.

While Tyrion and Cersei have a very contentious relationship on the show, that isn't true for actors Peter Dinklage and Lena Headey. These two onscreen siblings are actually great friends in real life and have been for some time. It was actually Dinklage who suggested to Headey that she audition for the role of Cersei after he had landed the part of Tyrion. The two were filming together on the set of the film Pete Smalls is Dead, and Dinklage was reading the script for the Game of Thrones pilot. Headey took his advice, show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss loved her audition, and the rest is history.

While there has been more than enough dark humor in the Game of Thrones fandom about George R.R. Martin dying before he finishes the novel series, apparently Martin himself considered it to be smart to clue the show creators in on how it all ends—just in case. David Benioff reported to Vanity Fair that they spent a week in 2013 with George R.R. Martin at his Santa Fe home. "If you know the ending, then you can lay the groundwork for it," Benioff explained. "And so we want to know how everything ends. We want to be able to set things up. So we just sat down with him and literally went through every character."

In addition to acting on one of the hottest shows on television, quite a few of the Game of Thrones cast members are also talented musicians. Jerome Flynn (Bronn) had a successful music career in the '90s as part of English pop cover duo Robson & Jerome. Both of their studio albums hit #1 on the charts and had multi-platinum sales in the UK. Iwan Rheon is also a musician and released his first full-length solo album, called Dinard, in 2015. Natalia Tena is the lead singer and plays accordion for the ska/gypsy/salsa fusion band Molotov Jukebox. Kristian Nairn is a talented DJ and plays shows all around the world.

Michiel Huisman was part of a Dutch band named Fontane in the early 2000s before embarking on a solo music career. Carice van Houten is also a singer and released an album in 2012 called See You On The Ice. Thomas Brodie-Sangster plays bass in a band called Winnet alongside his mother, sister, and father. Ed Skrein (who played Daario in Season 3) is a rapper. Last but not least, Jonathan Pryce is a talented musical theater performer. Not only did he star in the film musical Evita, but he also originated the part of The Engineer in the popular musical Miss Saigon—a role for which he won a Tony Award.

On any show that runs more than a single season, it's usually inevitable that the series' creators will have to deal with recasting a character in the middle of a show's run. Thankfully on Game of Thrones, that has only happened with secondary characters so far. Notably, Gregor Clegane was portrayed by three different actors, with Icelandic actor and strongman Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson ultimately taking over the role. The dragon queen's erstwhile love interest Daario Naharis was played by a blonde and long-haired Ed Skrein in season 3, but was replaced by Michiel Huisman in season 4.

Tommen Baratheon was played by Callum Wharry during the first two seasons, who was then replaced by Dean-Charles Chapman. (Chapman had previously played a bit part as Martyn Lannister, whom Lord Karstark kills.) Nell Tiger Free replaced Aimee Richardson in the role of Myrcella Baratheon in season 5. In season 6, Vladimir Furdik took the helm of the Night King over from Richard Brake, and Max Von Sydow became the new Three-Eyed Raven, replacing Struan Rodger.

In the series, Valyrian steel is a mysterious substance which was only made in Valyria before the Doom. The art of making the metal—which required spells and possibly dragonfire—has long since been lost to modern blacksmiths of Westeros and Essos. Did you know that Valyrian steel was based on a real-life metal? Damascus steel was a rare material much like Valyrian steel, with beautiful rippled patterns and an unnaturally sharp edge, that really existed and was commonly made by blacksmiths before 1750. But the art of creating Damascus steel has long been lost to time, and nobody knows how to make it today. While some smiths have attempted to reverse-engineer and recreate the process, nobody has yet struck upon the ancient formula.

Game of Thrones is a television sensation around the world, but some countries aren't as enthusiastic about the show as others. For example, when China's state TV station began re-airing the series in 2014, fans quickly noticed that the governmental agency had heavily censored the episodes before they aired—cutting as much as 20 minutes of footage from each. Additionally, in Turkey, the government banned the show in 2014 from being played at the country's military training schools—citing a desire to protect recruits from viewing images of "sexual exploitation, pornography, exhibitionism, abuse, harassment and all negative behaviors."

You have probably heard about all the parents who have named their newborns after characters in the show. With the population of little Aryas and Khaleesis on the rise, it shouldn't be too surprising that a group of scientists was also inspired by Game of Thrones. In 2013, Brazilian biologists discovered a new series of sea slug and were inspired to name it Tritonia khaleesi after the Mother of Dragons. They chose the name because they thought part of the slug looked like the queen's braided hairstyle.

While many Jon Snow fans may have swooned when we got a glimpse of his bare bottom during the cave scene with Ygritte, unfortunately that wasn't the real deal. Harington revealed in an interview with RadioTimes that shortly before filming was to begin for that season of Game of Thrones, he fell from his roof during a drunken attempt to retrieve his keys. When Harington fell, he broke an ankle, which left him unable to film full-length shots for the first few weeks of the filming schedule, including the cave scene. Luckily, a similarly built crew member stepped in to help out, but he had to cut off his luxurious long black hair in order to play the part. "so the only time you saw my ass, it wasn't my ass," Harington concluded. We've been buttboozled!