The original Game of Thrones pilot script was so different—and it would have changed everything
Season 8 of Game of Thrones is just around the corner, and fans are on edge to learn who ends up on the Iron Throne. So far, there are only theories about what might be in store for the show’s final season. But while the wait continues, we now have a glimpse at the original Game of Thrones pilot script. And it shows a very different Westeros from the one we’ve come to know.
HuffPost recently uncovered a long-lost draft of the original pilot in the archives at Texas A&M’s Cushing Memorial Library. The script contains a drunk Jon Snow and talking White Walkers, both of which we’d love to see. But one of the most bizarre differences lies in Catelyn and Sansa Stark’s relationship.
While Michelle Fairley’s Catelyn was fiercely protective of her children, first-draft Cat was disturbingly Cersei-like in her thirst for power. In one of the scenes in the original pilot script, the Lady of Winterfell all but begged her husband to let their eldest daughter marry Prince Joffrey.
"He would make our daughter Queen," she was originally supposed to say.
Ned’s reply: “Is that what you want for her? A pretty crown to wear?”
The episode would have then continued with the Starks learning of Jon Arryn’s death and Ned heading to King’s Landing anyway.
Who knows what would have happened with Catelyn plotting?
Maybe Sansa would have actually married Joffrey and inherited the Iron Throne after he was mysteriously poisoned. Or maybe she would have been picked off by the Lannisters before getting the chance to rule. Either way, we’ll probably never know.
One of the other biggest changes between the original script and the finished product concerned Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s wedding night. In the episode that aired, Drogo rapes Dany, and the traumatic experience fuels her to fight for power. But in the draft uncovered by HuffPost (and in the books), Dany takes charge in her first sexual encounter with Drogo.
On the other hand, Jaime and Cersei’s relationship was initially less consensual, with Cersei protesting her brother’s advances—and without a clarifying scene to let audiences know that they were, in fact, twins.
We honestly can’t imagine what Game of Thrones would be like if all these changes had stayed put. But as it stands, we’re looking forward to finding out what really goes down when Season 8 airs this April.
