Game of Thrones' showrunners surprised season 8 got so many Emmy nods
D.B. Weiss and David Benioff talk the final season of Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones ' final season split the fanbase like nothing before it, resulting in an infamous Change.org petition for season eight to be remade being signed by over 1.7 million fans. The final six episodes of the show featured a breakneck pace, plot twists and character deaths that some say ruined the show -- but it also scored a record-setting 32 Emmy nominations.
"It was kind of surprising," D.B. Weiss, who ran Game of Thrones alongside David Benioff, said in an interview with Japanese publication Star Channel. "I did not know that we expected... in my mind, I thought the last season would have been the peak, and that we would have ended up with a couple less [nominations] at best."
Game of Thrones' seventh season, which aired in 2017, earned 22 Emmy nominations, and among other awards won the Emmy for Best Drama Series. The Emmys take place Sept. 22, so we'll see soon how many awards Game of Thrones' final season snags.
Weiss and Benioff, known to fans as D and D, also talked to Star Channel about Coffeegate. In an early scene of episode four, The Last of the Starks, Daenerys Targaeryn was seen glaring at Jon Snow, and next to her was an anachronistic, Starbucks-looking coffee cup. If you were keeping up with the show, you probably remember the internet blowing up about this.
"In Persian rugs it's tradition that you make a little mistake when you're making the rug because only God can do anything perfect," Beinoff jested.
"That's why I put the coffee cup there," Weiss continued. "It was a conscious, concerted statement of imperfection..."
Getting serious, Beinoff explained, "We were concentrating so much on Daenerys and Jon Snow and we just didn't see this coffee cup right in the middle. At first I couldn't believe it, and then it was embarrassment because, 'how did we not see this coffee cup in the middle of the shot?'
"And then, eventually, it was just funny. This one is just a mistake, and it's kind of funny to us now."
For the record, Sophie Turner blamed Emilia Clarke. The cup was edited out of the episode, so if you watch it on HBO Now or HBO Go you won't be able to spot it any more. But the memes -- they live forever.