'Game Of Thrones' Season 5: Daznak's Pit Scene Explained

Episode 9 of “Game of Thrones” Season 5 featured a scene in Daznak's Pit in the city of Meereen. New disclosures by producers of the HBO series show how the massive scene was planned, and the director of the episode also shared his insight in a recent interview. [Spoiler Alert!]

Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) reluctantly agreed to reopen the fighting pits and was overseeing the fight at the biggest fighting pit called Daznak’s Pit in episode 9, when the Sons of the Harpy struck.

The storyboard drawings posted on the Making Game of Thrones website show how the scene was planned. The drawings begin with Daenerys sitting on the stage above the arena and Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) picking up a spear to strike at the rebel moving in to kill the mother of dragons. Soon more Sons of the Harpy emerge from the seating area and their numbers prompt the Unsullied soldiers to surround their queen.

Another set of drawings posted on Making Game of Thrones shows how the soldiers and Daario (Michiel Huisman) protected the queen from the attack by the Sons of the Harpy. The drawings show scenes of Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel). The scene ends with Daenerys sitting on Drogon for the first time in “Game of Thrones” Season 5 and flying away to an unknown location.

Director David Nutter discussed the scene with Vulture. He said the scene was more difficult to film than the Red Wedding scene in which Rob Stark (Richard Madden) and his army was slaughtered by the Freys. The director said he had to read the script “about 1,000 times” before he could plan the scene. About 1,000 extras were used every day to film the scenes at Daznak’s Pit -- and the sequence is said to have taken 12 days to shoot.

Nutter also directed the Season 5 finale, which he said was unlike any of the show's previous season finales. But he would not reveal anything more about the forthcoming epsiode.