Summary
- Game of Thrones’ biggest blunder was showcasing a prosthetic George W. Bush head in Season 1, causing outrage.
- Showrunners Benioff and Weiss admitted the mistake, leading HBO to cut the scene and apologize for its inclusion.
- Despite the controversy over the Bush cameo, attention shifted to criticism of the show’s unpopular ending in later years.
It goes without saying that Game of Thrones firmly cemented itself as one of the greatest and biggest shows in television history. Adapting the captivating and magical stories from George R.R. Martin’s iconic books, the fantasy series gripped its audience with its telling of the complexities of power-hungry families and the devastation that can expel. Even though Game of Thrones‘ latter seasons left some fans feeling frustrated and dismayed at how the show was concluding, much of Game of Thrones‘ writing and stunning visuals made the series a joy to watch, as viewers got to witness the best and the very worst of humanity in Westeros.
From the show’s premiere in 2011 until its unfortunately lackluster final season in 2019, Game of Thrones has been subject to scrutiny, especially regarding the on-set mistakes that fans of the show have always been eager to point out. Given that the series ran for eight years, having the odd mishap like a Starbucks coffee cup in a scene or when Jorah, who had a super-contagious, virus-like disease called greyscale, touched Daenerys’ hand can be unavoidable, but a particular mistake in Game of Thrones Season 1 finale is one of the show’s biggest blunders yet.
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Controversial George Bush Cameo Appears in Game of Thrones Season One, Episode 10
In Game of Thrones season one, episode 10, titled Fire and Blood, a prosthetic copy of George W. Bush’s head on a spike can be seen, which obviously caused quite a bit of uproar. After Joffrey took the reins of King’s Landing, the savage boy ended up executing Eddard Stark, who had been King Robert Baratheon’s hand before his death. In a twist of cruelty, Joffrey forces Sansa to look at the severed heads of her father and family household staff as they sit impaled on spikes. However, one of the severed heads resembled former U.S. president George W. Bush.
Many fans of the show could have easily missed this strange and somewhat disturbing cameo by the former president, but for those who had seen the DVD commentary, the Game of Thrones showrunners acknowledged this prosthetic mistake to their own detriment as outrage on social media began to boil over. Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss said “George Bush’s head appears in a couple of beheading scenes. It’s not a choice, it’s not a political statement. We just had to use whatever head we had lying around.” HBO got wind of this and ended up having to cut the scene from digital platforms and issued an apology stating that they found it “unacceptable” and “in very bad taste.” Benioff and Weis also had to apologize for their unintentional slip-up due to outing themselves on the DVD commentary.
“We use a lot of prosthetic body parts on the show: heads, arms, etc, We can’t afford to have these all made from scratch, especially in scenes where we need a lot of them, so we rent them in bulk. After the [Bush] scene was already shot, someone pointed out that one of the heads looked like George W. Bush. In the DVD commentary, we mentioned this, though we should not have. We meant no disrespect to the former president and apologize if anything we said or did suggested otherwise.”
It’s still unclear why Bush’s head was among the prosthetics used for that horrific display and it may go down as one of Game of Thrones‘ biggest mysteries, but it was very nearly a costly one, even though they initially wanted to save money for that particular scene. However, years later, the attention was taken off Benioff and Weis for their controversial Bush cameo as fans instead jumped on them for the show’s highly unpopular ending.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres sometime this year on HBO and Max, followed by House of the Dragon Season 3 sometime in 2026.
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- Release Date
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2011 – 2018
- Showrunner
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David Benioff, D.B. Weiss
- Directors
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David Nutter, Alan Taylor, D.B. Weiss, David Benioff
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Isaac Hempstead Wright
Brandon Bran Stark
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Iain Glen
Sir Jorah Mormont
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Peter Dinklage
Tyrion The Halfman Lannister
Source: Comicbook