Winterfell Under Major Reconstruction for Game of Thrones Season 8 Pre-Production! 

season seven might be over, but pre-production for the eighth season has been underway for over a month now, as filming is slated begin next month. We previously reported on the mysterious construction work going on at the Winterfell set, and today we bring you an update — it’s fair to say the remodeling is extensive.

sets are housed in their Belfast studios, the Winterfell one is located in Moneyglass, so shots from fans are a relatively common occurrence. Today,

was one such fan, sharing photos with a hell of a good zoom:

A lot of work going on at Winterfell Set @WatchersOTWall @WiCnet pic.twitter.com/IQUn1VxA8M

A closer look makes it clear that the crew isn’t just sprucing up the place:

Apparently, the towers that guard the Winterfell gate, along with a large portion of the outer walls, have been reconstructed from the ground up or, at the very least, remodeled extensively. The work obviously isn’t done — don’t worry, Winterfell isn’t being infected by the Red Keep; the reddish-brown is just naked wood.

. Even after the much more elaborate set that stands today was built for the fifth season, it still had to be fixed up for season six, presumably because the building suffered deterioration in winter. If the damage this year was particularly extensive, that would explain why they had to rebuild the entire outer section. However, there

be story and production reasons for this: the battlements of the outer walls are in good order, while in the story they have been dilapidated since the very first season, so the Starks may have been shoring up their defenses; and, in terms of production, the towers now reach to the very top, to the battlements — previously, that was achieved through VFX.

It may follow, then, that next season the story may require characters, or at least extras, to stand on the battlements of the walls and towers. Will Winterfell face an attack?

No prudent explanation will stop the frenzied speculation about why they’re rebuilding part of Winterfell, especially now that the White Walkers might head to attack the ancient stronghold. Considering the Night King has an undead fire-breathing dragon under his thrall now, let’s just be content that the fictional Winterfell isn’t made of wood.

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It wouldn’t be out of line to assume that Stark, Inc. would begin improving fortifications and fixing up the last of the damage done when the Boltons attacked.

The whole set appears to have been completely restructured and extended- those square towers at the gate were never fully kitted with crenelations before, and in fact were at the other side of the Moneyglass set. Looks like there’ll be extensive filming there as we’d expect, with scenes (battles?) filmed outside the walls of Winterfell Will try and sneak back on site again once filming starts 😝

Yes, maybe the battlements on top of the gate towers will be an active part of the set now, so that’s why they built them completely this time.

With almost the principals characters heading there is obvious they have to show more of the castle 🙂 that makes me happy 🙂 I’m pretty sure Dany would need a nice chamber etc…

just make sure to post the crossbow free zone on the privy door.

Glass gardens would be ace but being realistic, they’ll need a much larger set as almost all of the cast will be based there. Not to mention all of the armies camped outside. Either that, or we’ll have even more scenes on those damn catwalks- and they’re not designed for multi character scenes 😝

I’m thrilled that it’s looking like lots of S8 will be set at WF. My inner fanboy is looking forward to the following scenes:

(1) The Squee Heard ‘Round the World: Jon reunites with Arya. Hopefully, Jon rides in, is pleased to see young girls honing their fighting skills as he instructed, and sees an especially capable young woman kicking ass with lightning fast ninja warrior techniques.

The young woman turns around. It’s Arya. 😭. She jumps into his arms like in S1…or the S7 EW magazine photograph.

Arya meets Dragon Queen Dany, the great Targaryan warrior. Along with Brienne, they bond over war stories.

The Hound + Arya. I don’t care if the scene is three seconds long and consists solely of Sandor looking at her and saying, “Bring me one of those chickens.”

Tormund gets to impress Brienne. Maybe even talk to her instead of ogling her.

Well we least if most of the action happens in WF this season we can avoid people teleporting all over the place.

But Qyburn’s Jetpack Teleporter 3.0 ™ will be the big reveal of S8! 🚀

Seriously, there’s not enough time in ~6 hours to waste minutes explaining travel times and distances. Inserting subtitles like “3 days later..” would be cheesy and jarring at this point.

(Though I remain curious how the Army of the Dead will make any progress if they keep shuffling along like they’ve overdosed on Valium.)

Ten Bears, My fanfic outline of the next season has Winterfell falling within two episodes 😀 .

Seriously, if the Dead don’t at least threaten the South (cross the Neck and enter the Riverlands), I’ll be so disappointed! #winterfellinruins

My fanfic outline of the next season has Winterfell falling within two episodes 😀 .

Scenario #1: Night King ambles up to WF….stops, looks around, and tells his undead army:

“On second thought, let’s not go to Winterfell. ‘Tis a silly place.”

I guess the Night King goes where Bran is (he should go to Essos).

The Kings of Winter will rise from the tombs and fight the Night King.

Hopefully they’re DEconstructing the damn Littlefinger/Sansa perpetual lookout.

I would love to see a proper battle in Wintefell. Or maybe they need different places for people to talk, we always see the same battlement 😛

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