Game of Thrones: 10 things you never knew

Game of Thrones. Photo / Supplied

1. Kit Harington didn't read the final scripts ahead of filming, only learning Jon Snow's fate when the cast gathered for the first table read. He wasn't the only one. Several cast members ended up in tears during the table read as they discovered their character's final destiny.

2. At the end of each script, there is a note summarising: "End of episode five" or "End of episode six". The final script for season eight read: "End of Game of Thrones."

3. Among the cast, it's acknowledged that Kit Harington had the worst role on the show because he was always filming in freezing climates.

4. Conleth Hill, who plays Lord Varys, originally read for the part of Robert Baratheon. That role went to Mark Addy but producers promised they'd bring Hill in for something else. At the time he thought: "Well that's bullshit, but it's nice bullshit."

5. Rory McCann (The Hound) hasn't watched all the episodes of Game of Thrones. He prefers to read the scripts and visualise the story in his head. He's waiting for a good dose of the flu to finally catch up.

6. In the episode The Bear and the Maiden Fair (season three), Brienne of Tarth fights a bear. The scene was shot in Northern Ireland without the bear before the cast flew to LA to finish filming with Bart the bear. According to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ( Jaime Lannister), Bart was quite the diva and required regular applause before he would come out from his trailer.

7. For Conleth Hill (Lord Varys), the biggest twist of the entire show came in season six. "Oh, Hodor. I never saw that coming... So I made him a T-shirt saying: 'Hold your own f***ing door'."

8. Rory McCann (The Hound) spent the most time in makeup of any cast member. According to co-star Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane), it was eight years of him being the first person on the call sheet.

9. McCann's brother-in-law was the props supervisor on the series, while Conleth Hill's brother Ronan is the sound mixer - and has won four Emmys for his efforts.

10. McCann's worst time on set was shooting the cave duel with Richard Dormer (Beric Dondarrion) in season three. "No one could breathe and the heat was just intense. How people didn't get really ill with that I don't know."

Listen to The Worst Game of Thrones Podcast in the World:

Listen to "Ep Nine - Recapping the Long Awaited Final Season" on Spreaker.

Game of Thrones screens Mondays at 1pm on Sky SoHo and is available the same day on Neon.