15 Years Of GOT: Rare BTS Footage Of Emilia Clarke, Gwendoline Christie And More Released On Anniversary

It's been 15 years since HBO's Game of Thrones first came on the air on April 17, 2011. Since then, the show has changed the lives of those who worked behind and in front of the camera. Actors such as Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Gwendoline Christie and more have become household names and those who had smaller parts, such as Pedro Pascal and Jason Momoa, are now big movie stars. The show ended controversially in 2019 with viewers lambasting the ending even though author George RR Martin had yet to finish his book series. Despite it all, a new video released by the network to commemorate the show's anniversary has gotten fans nostalgic. The stars of the show got emotional on their last days on the show, saying goodbye to not only their characters

but also the friends and family on the show.

New BTS video of casts' final goodbyes on Game of Thrones

For the first time in seven years, the official account of the HBO show on X (formerly Twitter) posted a new video and shared that it was never-before-seen footage of the actors wrapping their final scenes and leaving Westeros behind. The two-minute and 40-second video has the last days of cast members Emilia Clarke, Sophie Turner, Gwendoline Christie, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey and more, who all received a framed commemorative plaque of their time on the game-changing series. For some like Turner, who don't really cry, shed tears at the momentous occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u89-hBEwpI

For actress Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, the show was her entire childhood. Harington, who played fan favourite characterJon Snow, broke down as he exclaimed that it had never been just a show to him. He married Rose Leslie, whom he met on the show as his love interest Ygritte.

After eight seasons and 73 episodes later, Game of Thrones ended on May 19, 2019. The show's audience grew with every year, as did its cast. Many of them have gone to headline their own shows and movies, but they will always be remembered for their iconic GOT characters.

More about Game of Thrones

The series was created by David Benioff and DB Weiss and went on to win 59 Emmy Awards. Game of Thrones won the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series four times in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. After the show ended, two prequel series, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, were released on HBO in 2022 and 2026, respectively. A play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, a big-screen movie and an animated series are also in the works. The show may have ended but its legacy will live long.