Production
Writing
"Dragonstone" was written by series creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. [2] The episode, as well as the seventh season as a whole, contains original content beyond what is featured in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels from which the series is adapted. [3]
According to Benioff, the conversation between Jon Snow and Sansa Stark shows Sansa's lingering resentment that she has been insufficiently credited for securing the alliance with the Vale. [4] According to Weiss, the dialogue between Jaime and Cersei emphasizes that, with her children dead, Cersei is morally unconstrained and lacks Daenerys's concern for innocent people. [5] The writers chose not to include dialogue in the scene of Daenerys's arrival at Dragonstone to preserve suspense and "honor the momentous occasion of Daenerys’s arrival". [6]
Casting
"Dragonstone" featured the introduction of Jim Broadbent as Archmaester Ebrose. [7] His casting was first announced in August 2016 by James Hibberd of Entertainment Weekly , who revealed that he would play a "significant" role in the seventh season. [8] In March 2017, Broadbent confirmed in an interview with ScreenCrush that he would be playing a maester and would share scenes with John Bradley, who portrays Samwell Tarly. [9]
In March 2017, it was announced that musician Ed Sheeran would make a cameo appearance at some point during the season. [10] Producers had been trying to bring him onto the show for several years as a surprise for Maisie Williams, who portrays Arya Stark and is a fan of Sheeran. [11] Prior to the episode airing, Sheeran said of his appearance that: "Nothing exciting happens in this scene, we just have a conversation and that's kind of it." [12] In the episode, Sheeran portrays a Lannister soldier who Arya comes across when she hears him singing a song. The song, titled "Hands of Gold", is adapted from George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords , the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. [13] In the books, the song is sung by a character named Symon Silver Tongue, who is unrelated to Sheeran's character. [14]
Filming
"Dragonstone" was directed by Jeremy Podeswa, who previously directed the episodes "Kill the Boy", "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", "The Red Woman", and "Home". [15] In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter , Podeswa described Ed Sheeran as "lovely to work with", adding that: "I think he fit right into that world." [16] Podeswa also noted that Sheeran requested to change the key of the song he performs in the scene. [16]
Podeswa discussed his direction for the cold open, saying he wanted to "honor the great writing", and praised Maisie Williams and David Bradley's performance as Arya Stark and Walder Frey respectively, stating "As we got more into it, you knew the audience would have questions coming right into the scene, knowing Walder Frey is dead. So, what is this? Is it a flashback? Is there something else going on here? It's about playing that line of audience surprise and curiosity and how they read the scene. David's performance is so fantastic where there's a moment you can almost feel Arya inside of him. It's even before the dialogue betrays who he is." [16] The scene was not written as a cold open; Benioff and Weiss made that decision on the strength of Bradley's work. [17] Following the cold open, Podeswa also spoke about directing the opening scene following the title sequence, revealing "We knew it would be one shot. Nothing fancy in terms of camerawork. But it's a shot that very slowly reveals itself over time, and we take that time. Then it was a matter of me conceptualizing it with the storyboard artists and visual effects department." [16] Podeswa also stated that the scene ending on the eye of the giant wight was not originally in the script, but came from working with the art department for the series. [16]
According to Podeswa, the montage of Samwell Tarly at the Citadel was originally "about seven or eight minutes" due to the amount of material filmed and that the final version was edited down significantly. [16] For the closing scene of Daenerys Targaryen arriving at Dragonstone, Podeswa noted that very little of the scene was shot on a sound stage, but rather on location in several places, including San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, Spain. [16] The interiors of Dragonstone were shot on a sound stage, with set designer Deb Riley creating the throne room, and redesigning the map room for the episode. [16]
