Emilia Clarke Pointed a Finger at a New Suspect in the ‘Game of Thrones’ Starbucks Cup Mystery
It's been two years, but we're all still trying to get to the bottom of this.
Yes, Game of Thrones may be gone, but the mystery of the Starbucks cup will never be forgotten. In fact, Thrones star Emilia Clarke just blew on the dying embers and pointed her finger at a new suspect.
Clarke took part in a June 13th text interview with theSkimm during which she answered a few Thrones-related questions, including one that asked her if there was a scene or storyline she would have changed, to which she hilariously answered: “Hm, right. The bit where I died!” Same, honestly.
Clarke then read out the next question, What is my morning drink of choice? It’s not Starbucks. Spoiler, she joked. I’m going to say it again for the record—was not mine!
Then came a scathing accusation: “Looking at you, Dan Weiss.”
For those who need a brief catch-up, during the airing of Game of Thrones‘ final season, a rogue Starbucks cup make a blatant cameo during a scene in which Clarke’s character, Daenerys Targaryen, realizes she can never win over the North while Jon Snow (her lover/nephew—if you don’t know, don’t ask) is alive and well.
The scene was supposedly one of many catalysts of Dany’s downward decline into madness (which, in itself, was one of many questionable plot points of the final season). But the Starbucks cup pulled focus because, well, from which Westerosi Starbucks locations did the Mother of Dragons pick up a hot brew before this feast…?
Dan Weiss, half of the D&D creator duo of Thrones, was a suspect in the scandal shortly after the episode aired because it just so happened that he and co-creator David Benioff made cameos in that scene. However, because the cup was placed in front of Clarke, it was assumed by most on the internet that it was hers—and she’s been trying to set the record straight ever since.
She told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in October 2019 that Conleth Hill, who plays her onscreen traitor Varys, actually confessed to her that it was his cup—He might have been drunk, but he said it, she said.
But, two years after that fateful episode aired, it appears that Clarke has done her own investigating and has come back to the theory that Weiss may be the culprit after all. Until we can locate the cup and secure DNA evidence, we’ll just have to take the Mad Queen’s word for it.