Game Of Thrones' Best Director Set To Return For Season 8
Sapochnik's coming (Hard)home.
There was one key person missing from Game of Thrones Season 7: Miguel Sapochnik.
The director, who has helmed four episodes of the show, sat out the seventh season (it's fair to say he earned the break) and, while it was mostly well-directed, it's easy to think his presence would've elevated things even further. Certainly Beyond The Wall could've been better under his control, rather than Alan Taylor's.
The good news, then, is that it looks like Sapochnik is coming back for Season 8. Fabian Wagner, the cinematographer on all of the director's episodes, posted an image of himself during the filming of Battle of the Bastards to Instagram, alongside assistant Caroline Alderson, VFX supervisor Joe Bauer, and VFX producer Steve Kullback.
The image is old, but the caption is what suggests Sapochnik's returning: "Back on Game of Thrones for prep of the final season and the team is back together." That's a pretty big hint, and one that fits; Sapochnik has proved himself to be the show's best director, so should definitely be back for the final season.
His first episode for the show, The Gift, was pretty solid, but it's the next three that cement him as Thrones' greatest: Hardhome, Battle of the Bastards, and The Winds of Winter are all-time great episodes of the show, and the direction of each is utterly stunning. We still don't know the full line-up of directors, but with only six instalments, hopefully he'll get a couple again (and by this stage, he's more than earned the right to direct the series finale).
Next Page: Who Else Should Direct Season 8?