18 Things You Didn't Know About Game Of Thrones

The pilot reshoot also saw a number of re-castings. Original Daenerys, Tamzin Merchant was replaced by Emilia Clarke for reasons unknown, and Michelle Fairley replaced Jennifer Ehle after the latter left to look after her daughter.

Prior to any filming taking place however, a number of cast members who would turn up later on were pencilled in for other roles but for whatever reason turned them down. One of the more well known potential casting choices was Iwan Rheon. He originally went for the part of the bastard of Winterfell, Jon Snow. He lost the role in auditions to Kit Harrington but eventually was cast as his polar opposite, the bastard of the Dreadfort, Ramsey Snow.

Names like Danny Dyer and Sam Heughan went up for several roles but were turned down for all of them, Gillian Anderson allegedly went up for Cersei, and Elizabeth Olsen auditioned for Daenerys but didn't proceed past the first audition. Natalie Dormer, who would go onto play Margaery Tyrell, was also rumoured for Daenerys but there has been no confirmation of this. Roy Dotrice, who portrayed the Pyromancer, was originally cast as Grand Maester Pycelle, but was replaced by Julian Glover after Dotrice pulled out over health concerns.

An interesting choice for the role of Yara Greyjoy was Lily Allen, legitimate sister of Theon's actor, Alfie Allen. She turned down the role when she discovered her first scene would involve her being felt up by, not only her on-screen brother, but her actually brother. A wise choice.