'Game of Thrones' To Film Different Series Endings To Avoid Leaks And Spoilers

“Game of Thrones” Season 7 has been a very complicated run for the show this year. For one thing, a number of leaks were released and spoilers posted all over Reddit. That being said, HBO plans to avoid these by filming multiple versions of the series finale in an effort to confuse whoever tries to spoil it.
“Game of Thrones” is indeed one of the biggest productions and TV shows ever, and it’s hard to keep things under wraps with all the clamor going on. After all, Season 8 will be the last season for the series and the network wants to tell the final story of Westeros without worrying about leaks and spoilers.
The technique of filming multiple scenes that aren’t exactly necessary for the episode has been done by “Game of Thrones” before. Kit Harington once shared that they made him do 15 hours of additional scenes just to throw people off should it leaked online. Luckily for HBO, it worked.

Iain Glen, Kit Harington, Kristofer Hivju in Game of Thrones (2011). Photo via HBO

‘Game of Thrones’: Multiple endings, maximum confusion

In a report by The Morning Call, HBO President Casey Bloys addressed the desire of the network to safely lock the production of “Game of Thrones” Season 8 away from the eyes of the general public (namely the paparazzi). He also shared about their strategy of shooting multiple versions of the series finale to maximize the confusion.
“I know in Game of Thrones, the ending, they’re going to shoot multiple versions so that nobody really knows what happens,” Bloys said. “You have to do that on a long show. Because when you’re shooting something, people know. So they’re going to shoot multiple versions so that there’s no real definitive answer until the end.”
“Finales are tough,” Bloys added. “If you think about, ‘Six Feet Under,’ well that was a pretty good finale. But if you think about ‘Seinfeld,’ if you think about ‘The Sopranos,’ if you think about ‘Breaking Bad.’ Everybody has an opinion about how a show should end.”
This technique would definitely help the studio greatly in terms of keeping details a secret. And with information hungry fans scouring the internet for every bit of spoiler they can find, it’s a good way to keep them confused until the real version of the finale airs.
Production for “Game of Thrones” Season 8 will begin this October and could go on until August 2018. That’s why we might not see the series until 2019. HBO also hasn’t announced an official release date yet. “Our production people are trying to figure out a timeline for the shoot and how much time the special effects take,” Bloys told The Hollywood Reporter.