Game of Thrones showrunners break silence over coffee cup disaster in season 8

Game of Thrones' showrunners have finally addressed coffee-gate . . . and admitted it was a genuine mistake. Image / Netflix

Game of Thrones' final season gave a whole new meaning to the term caffeine hit.

The wildly popular fantasy HBO series, which we farewelled in its eighth season in May, is one of the most expensively produced TV shows ever, making it all the more baffling when not one of its many production staff noticed a 21st century coffee cup was left in one of the scenes.

The disposable cup, which appeared in front of Emilia Clarke's character Daenerys Targaryen in the episode Winterfell, was glaringly obvious among millions of fans for being out of place among medieval candles and goblets.

The embarrassing error instantly turned into a trending story around the world and became the subject of many a hilarious meme.

And now, four months later, the series showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have finally broken their silence on the Starbucks bungle, referring to it as a "Persian rug" moment.

"It's, like, you know, I think in Persian rugs, it's tradition that you make a little mistake when making the rug because only God can do anything perfect," Benioff said.

"That's why I put the coffee cup there," Weiss added.

"Conscious, concerted statement of our imperfection."

Jokes aside, they finally admitted it was just a massive stuff-up.

"We were concentrating so much on Daenerys and Jon Snow that we just didn't see this coffee cup right in the middle," Benioff continued.

"So, at first I couldn't believe it, and then it was embarrassment. 'How did we not see this coffee cup in the middle of the shot?' And then, eventually, it was just kind of funny. This one is just a mistake, and it's kind of funny to us now."

Just 48 hours after the episode aired, the cup was removed from the final scene.

We'd say too little too late, but if they didn't leave the cup there we wouldn't have been blessed with these glorious memes. Even Starbucks' official page weighed in.

How great is the internet.

Barista: ”what’s your name?”
Dany: “Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, the Mother of Dragons, the Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, the Unburnt, the Breaker of Chains”

— Santiago 🧢 (@smedinasaenz) May 6, 2019

bran saw that starbucks cup but didn’t tell anyone

— Brandy Jensen (@BrandyLJensen) May 6, 2019

I knew I noticed something different in this week's intro pic.twitter.com/JqeGcIp6vz

— Jason Gallagher (@jga41agher) May 6, 2019