20 Ways Your Favourite TV Shows Were Almost Completely Different

2. Game Of Thrones - The First Pilot Was Very Different

Tamzin Merchant Emilia Clarke Daenerys Game of Thrones
HBO

Game of Thrones is now the biggest show in the world, so much so that it's insane to think that it struggled in its earliest stages.

The pilot episode, Winter Is Coming, is a brilliant hour of television, but it's not the first version of the Season 1 premiere to be made. A very different version was initially shot, which included different actresses in the key roles of Daenerys Targaryen (Tamzin Merchant) and Catelyn Stark (Jennifer Ehle), and was directed by Thomas McCarthy.

Among the reported differences are less of a focus on the Starks, more formal language, and longer scenes that dragged on, with major issues being cited around the lack of understanding of characters and relationships. Due to the negative reaction, creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff took the unusual step of reshooting almost the entire thing with a different director (around 90% was redone) and had they not done that, who knows what kind of life the show would've had, if any at all.

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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.