Game Of thrones Art Director Defends Coffee Cup Gaffe

No TV show is perfect — not even Game of Thrones. While the fantasy drama series has garnered a reputation for its attention to detail, the people in charge got a little lazy on the latest episode, with fans spotting a glaring mistake sitting in plain sight.

If you haven't seen the episode yourself, watch out — there are spoilers incoming.

Entitled "The Last of the Starks," episode 4 of Game of Thrones season 8 would have been more appropriately named "The First of the Starbucks," as a single paper coffee cup was accidentally left on a table while shooting — and it made the final edit.


"How could you let this happen?"

The immersion-destroying cup can be seen just next to Daenerys Targaryen in the Great Hall at Winterfell's castle, where the survivors of the Battle of Winterfell are celebrating victory over the Night King and the Army of the Dead. Jon Snow is laughing it up with his pals; Brienne, Podrick, and the Lannister brothers are playing a drinking game, Sansa is chatting with the Hound; and Daenerys is quietly freaking out over how well-liked Jon is, knowing that if word of his true parentage gets out, almost everyone will side with him over her to take the Iron Throne.

As Tormund sings Jon's praises while Dany watches, just between them on the table is that out-of-place, out-of-time coffee cup, with a sleeve and a lid and everything. The only thing we don't see is an actor's name.

Game of Thrones fans were quick to spot the error and post about it on social media, and though some initially believed that the photos they saw online were fake, a rewatch of the scene proves that it's no farce — the most recent episode of Game of Thrones really did make a mistake by not clearing the table and accidentally including a coffee cup in the shot.

"Madness. Madness and stupidity."

Plenty of viewers found the blunder funny, while others took a harsher stance and slammed the Game of Thrones creative team for being oblivious to the slip-up.

Journalist Eric Seales tweeted:

"So it takes @HBO @GameOfThrones almost 2 years to shoot season 8 and they forgot to take away Daenerys Targaryen's @Starbucks cup in yesterday's episode?? Oops! starbuckscup"

The folks from the You Watch, I Listen podcast had this to add:

"Seriously how did the Game of Thrones directors and editors absolutely MISS a Starbucks cup left on the table during that scene? 'He's Jon Snow. King in the North. The drinker of latte's.'"

Many commenters felt it was pretty incredible that despite years of work and millions of dollars spent to complete season 8's six episodes, everyone behind the scenes from the set to the editing bay just missed the presence of the wayward coffee cup. What I Like About Me author Jenna Guillaume even called back to episode 3's technical problems by joking,

"maybe if they lit the show better they'd be able to spot their own basic mistakes."

The quips kept coming as the night continued, with one fan writing,

"feeling sorry for the starbucks [barista] that had to write out 'Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons.'" What a mouthful!

Though the immersion-breaking coffee cup seen in the episode sure looks like one from Starbucks, it apparently isn't. According to Game of Thrones art director Hauke Richter, it's actually from a local coffeehouse in the town of Banbridge, Northern Ireland, around where the series filmed that particular episode. Richter, who has worked on Game of Thrones for the last five years, also told TMZ that the coffee cup was an unfortunate mistake, and likely exhaustion-related. He said,

"We are usually so diligent that this does not happen. The shoot was very hard and demanding and it is likely that after a very tiring [episode] 3 shoot, this was simply overlooked by an exhausted crew."

The art director added that errors like this happen quite often on television and movies, but that he felt people were quicker to notice this particular mistake due to Game of Thrones' popularity. As for HBO, the network released a statement the following day which helped to explain things, Keep watching the video to see the rest of how the Game of thrones art director defends coffee cup gaffe!

#GoT #GameOfThrones #GoTStarbucks