Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan & Lisa Joy on that Game of Thrones cameo

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

SPOILERS for the second episode of Westworld's third season. Over the years, HBO has released some absolutely massive TV shows, and they don't come much bigger than Game of Thrones and Westworld, two of the most ambitious series the network has ever produced. While Game of Thrones may have come to something of a divisive conclusion last year, the series recieved a surprising nod in the latest episode of Westworld.

The second episode of Westworld's third season found Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) sneaking back into the park to find out why Maeve (Thandie Newton) had gone missing, where they just so happen to discover Drogon, one of Daenerys Targaryen's dragons. Two technicians are trying to figure out how to get Drogon to Costa Rica, and you might recognize them as Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. While speaking with Variety, Westworld creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy spoke about how these cameos came to be.

Those guys are the f—ing nicest guys in the world. Usually when you come into a network where there’s a big dog show — and we’ve been in that position before — without naming names, there’s been [a vibe of], “We’re not inclined to be friendly to you if you’re the new kid on the block.” We came to HBO with a big ambitious show at a point in which their show was and is the biggest f—ing thing that’s ever been on TV. And they were so welcoming and so kind to us at a moment in which we were struggling through a first season and trying to figure out how it will work. We’ve remained friends.

Jonathan Nolan added that George R.R. Martin had been dying to do a crossover since the very first season of Westworld. "We’re also friendly with George R.R. Martin, and George had consistently since the first season said, 'We’ve got to do a tie-in with ‘Game of Thrones,'" Noland said. "People forget that George was originally a TV writer and he came up in the TV world in which you’d occasionally have these crossover shows, which the fans would f—ing freak out over. So George had always been pitching the crossover show." Nolan added that the CGI model of Drogon used in the episode is the real one as they were working with Pixamundo, the VFX house who built the dragons for Game of Thrones. The Westworld creators said that there was some debate about which version of Drogon to use. "We had to choose," Joy said. "I remember there was a whole big debate about which season dragon for its size because the dragon grew." Nolan added, "There was some back and forth about whether Season 4 or Season 5 Drogon, and some debate about how big the room was and what position the dragon could be in."

Westworld airs on Sunday on HBO, and you can check out a review of the season's first episode from our own Alex Maidy!