Helen Sloane/HBO(LOS ANGELES) — If you still want more Game of Thrones, HBO has just introduced a new behind-the-scenes series about season 7 called Game Revealed.
The first installment is now available on YouTube, and it examines episode one, featuring that infamous Ed Sheeran cameo. In it, we learn that Ed’s appearance on the show wasn’t really about him at all: It was about Maisie Williams and her character, Arya.
In Game Revealed, Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff explains, “We knew [Ed] was a fan of the show, and we knew that Maisie was obsessed with him, so we always thought it’d be fun to try to get him into a Maisie scene at some point.”
In the scene, Ed plays a Lannister soldier, one of a small group that Arya comes across on her way to King’s Landing. She’s on her way to murder Queen Cersei, but for that brief moment, we see the tiny assassin put revenge aside and relax.
“When I first got the scene, and I saw I was a Lannister soldier and it was Maisie, I just assumed we’d all get killed at the end,” Ed says with a laugh in Game Revealed.
“But I think the underlying theme is that, as in any war, the soldiers are just people and we are young boys,” he continues. “And I think she kinda realizes that she can just kinda chill, let her guard down, have some food and crack some jokes!”
While the first episode of Game Revealed is free, Deadline reports that the rest of them will be available exclusively to HBO subscribers via HBO Now, HBO Go and HBO On Demand.
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