The hour (literally an hour; the episode is 60 minutes long) is directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who last season helmed the stunning “Hardhome.”
“Every battle on Thrones is unique,” Sapochnik tells us. “I think that’s why [showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] keep doing them. In the case of ‘Battle of the Bastards’ – or ‘BOB’ as we affectionately called it in production – David and Dan wanted to do a thing of spectacle, a strategic pitchfield battle they hadn’t had the resources to do back in season 1 or 2. I was particularly interested in depicting both the horror of war and the role of luck in battle.”
The result required 25 days of filming, with 500 extras, 600 crew members and 70 horses – horses, by the way, are “not easy at all” to coordinate in a battle sequence, notes Benioff, which is why they’re rarely used except in big budget war films.
“Miguel did such a fantastic job with ‘Hardhome’ last season, we thought we should bring him back, this time with horses,” Benioff says. “Some of the shots he’s pulled off are some of the best on the show.”
Adds Weiss: “Miguel’s really outdone himself. Fully fleshed out medieval battles require a tremendous amount of resources and choreography to get them right. It feels like we’re doing something fresh that you don’t see on TV and movies very often.”
