Game of Thrones season 7: Fake scenes were shot for 15 hours to throw off plot spoilers

'We knew the paparazzi were around'

Game of Thrones has always been dogged by spoilers thanks to many of its key scenes filming on location out in the open, but the show got inventive with its efforts to keep its secrets under wraps for season 7, filming entire scenes it knew would be snapped by paparazzi hiding in the bushes but will never be used.

"Will you have a scene with Daenerys Targaryen, can you tells us that?" Jimmy Kimmel asked lead actor Kit Harington on his show this week.

Harington replied:

"What I can say about this season is - we had a lot of paparazzi following us around, especially when we were in Spain, and we did fake some scenes. We put together people in situations where we knew the paparazzi were around so they'd take photos and that would get on the internet to fake scenes so people would think they were real."

Kit said he personally filmed three fake scenes, each taking about five hours to complete.

This throws into question some big "scenes" that were spotted during filming on season 7 and at the time did seem remarkable that they were allowed to be glimpsed by outsiders, including one in which Jon, Daenerys and Cersei inspect a captured wight.

As well as being ingenious, Kimmel noted that the fake filming must have been a pain in the ass.

"Yeah, on my day off they get me in!" Harington joked.

Game of Thrones season 7 arrives on HBO, Sky Atlantic and NOWTV 16 July.