Production
Writing
"Stormborn" was written by Bryan Cogman. Cogman has been a writer for the series since its beginning, previously writing nine other episodes. The title of the episode, "Stormborn", is a reference to Daenerys Targaryen, who was born in the midst of a great storm, earning her that nickname. In the "Inside the Episode" segment published by HBO following the initial airing of the episode, co-creators and executive producers of the series David Benioff and D. B. Weiss were interviewed, saying "We last saw Nymeria when Arya made her run away because she wanted to save Nymeria's life, - She knew Cersei was going to kill her if she found her, and when she finally finds Nymeria again — or Nymeria finds her — she of course wants Nymeria to come back home with her and be her loyal companion again. But Nymeria's found her own life." They continued noting that the line "That's not you" was a direct reference to what she said to Ned Stark back in the first season, when he was telling her that she will be a "lady of a castle and marrying some lord and wearing a nice frilly dress", which Arya responded by saying "That's not me". Weiss continued, "Arya's not domesticated. It makes total sense the wolf wouldn't be either. Once the wolf walks away, at first she's heartbroken to have come this close, but then she realizes the wolf is doing exactly what she would do if she was that wolf." [1]
Casting
The episode featured the return of Ben Hawkey as Hot Pie, who was last seen in season 4's "Mockingbird". Hawkey spoke about his return to Entertainment Weekly , saying that he did not expect to ever come back. Prior to getting the script and to avoid the return of character to be leaked, the producers gave Hawkey a code name when communicating by email. He continued by saying that the scene was "really nice" and was a "perfect little Hot Pie scene". [2] "Stormborn" was also the last episode for Keisha Castle-Hughes and Jessica Henwick, as Obara and Nymeria Sand were killed. The episode introduced new recurring cast member Tom Hopper as Dickon Tarly, replacing Freddie Stroma, who briefly portrayed the character in Season 6. [3]
Filming
"Stormborn" was directed by Mark Mylod, his first of two episodes for this season. He joined the series as a director in the fifth season, his first episode being "High Sparrow", which was followed by "Sons of the Harpy". John Bradley spoke about what went into shooting the Jorah Mormont greyscale scene with actor Iain Glen. Before filming Iain had to sit on the prosthetics trailer for around five hours while the make up department "applied these really detailed and intricate greyscale prosthetics, piece by piece." He continued "I was basically peeling the plastic latex prosthetic off of Iain's actual body. He was kind of in a suit - It was the same as pulling away a prosthetic. It was a very, very big technical job for the prosthetics department. There were about five or six guys on set that day that you can't see but were just out of the camera line, there with pumps and buckets of pus." [4]
Nathalie Emmanuel discussed her character's love scene with Grey Worm, saying that the characters have shown "interest in each other", we have seen them "express it for each other, but not really say it - This point is the climax and they physically act upon it", much due to them facing "the prospect of never seeing each other again". Emmanuel went on to praise the relationship that has developed between these two characters, stating that it's "something sweet and pure and beautiful". [5]
Gemma Whelan said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the kissing scene by Yara Greyjoy and Ellaria Sand before the battle sequence at the end was improvised. She stated that "It wasn’t directed that we would kiss, - It just seemed like something we should do". [6] The scenes with the Sand Snakes was originally planned to be a more "drawn out storyline", but due to Jessica Henwick's schedule filming her scenes as Colleen Wing in Iron Fist and The Defenders , she would have had to go back and forth to shoot both shows.[ clarification needed ] Speaking about the battle sequence, Henwick said "normally there’s a lot of CG and you watch it on screen and you see a massive epic battle, but when you’re filming it’s all quite tame by comparison. For this, the audience can’t feel the heat on their face from the pyrotechnics going off or feel the wave machine trying to knock us off our feet, or the sweat dripping off our faces." [7]
Mylod also discussed his direction for the battle sequence, saying that "We agreed that the violence should be brutal and feel un-choreographed, that it shouldn't feel structured". Stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam also stated that they were inspired by riots when it was being choreographed. Mylod decided to put much more of the focus to Theon, Yara and Euron Greyjoy, rather than people around them. [8]
