We’ve heard about the extreme lengths that Marvel Studios employed to prevent “Avengers: Infinity War” spoilers from leaking, including limiting the scripts to iPads and including fake scenes. But they really have nothing on the folks at “Game of Thrones.”
In an interview from New York Comic-Con, actress Sophie Turner, aka Sansa Stark on HBO’s hit series, described the measures that the people behind “Game of Thrones” took during the filming of the upcoming Season 8 (the series’ final outing) to prevent any sort of spoiler-y set photos, leaks, or videos.
“We have a whole different name for [‘Game of Thrones’] when we’re shooting it. I think this season it was like the ‘Tree of Life’ or something,” explained the actress in an interview with Vulture.
She goes on to describe that the call sheets for the production have fake names, echoing the fake titles. Turner also described the use of “drone killers.” For those not familiar with these devices, “drone killers” resemble large guns, but instead of firing a projectile, when aimed at a drone, the “killer” will disable the device from the sky, sending it crashing to its technological death.
“I don’t know how it does it. It creates like this field around and the drones just drop,” she said. “Also, we shoot fake scenes. We got into costume in Croatia because we know the paparazzi lurk around there, so we would spend like half a day doing nothing.”
To put the use of “drone killers” into perspective, they’re mainly used by police and other governmental agencies for emergency situations. This is the first time we’ve heard of the devices being used for a TV production, that’s for sure.
READ MORE: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Actors Tease Series Finale: “People Will Have Their Mind Blown”
So, with the stress of filming in such secretive situations, how does Turner unwind? Well, with the help of her BFF Maisie Williams (who plays Arya Stark) and some recreational drug use. “We’re kind of like loners on ‘Game of Thrones,’ just because the past few seasons Maisie and I have sleepovers every night when we’re shooting. Or every night whenever both of us are in town. We just used to sit there and eat and watch stupid videos and smoke weed,” said Turner. “I don’t know if my publicist will kill me for saying this. We’d get high and then we’d sit in the bath together and we’d rub makeup brushes on our faces. It’s fun.”
No official release date has been set for “Game of Thrones” Season 8, but many are expecting the series to drop in the first half of 2019.