Game of Thrones title sequence

External video
"Game of Thrones" Main Titles

The title sequence of the HBO fantasy television series Game of Thrones introduces every episode and changes depending on the locations visited in that particular episode.

The title sequence was created by Elastic for HBO. Creative director Angus Wall, art director Robert Feng, animator Kirk Shintani and designer Hameed Shaukat received the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Main Title Design for their work on the sequence.

Summary

It depicts a three-dimensional map of the series' fictional world, projected onto a concave earth, and lit by a small sun contained within an armilla at the sphere's center. As the camera swoops across the map and focuses on the locations in which the episode's events take place, complicated clockwork mechanisms let buildings and other structures emerge from the map and unfold. Meanwhile, accompanied by Ramin Djawadi's title music, the names of the principal cast (with the symbols of the characters' families next to the names) and creative staff are displayed. The sequence concludes after about one-and-a-half minutes with the title card and brief opening credits indicating the episode's writer(s) and director(s).

Description

The title sequence consists of a three-dimensional map of the world, with the continents of Westeros and Essos located on the inner surface of a sphere. At the center of the sphere is a Copernican (heliocentric) armillary sphere (spherical astrolabe). The details of the title sequence change each week depending on the locations visited. The following description is how the sequence appears in the first episode of the series, "Winter is Coming".

The sequence opens with a close-up of the sun and the astrolabe surrounding it. Relief details are visible on the astrolabe, showing a volcano destroying a city while a dragon watches on and several people escaping in a boat, a reference to the Doom of Valyria. The camera then pans to a wide-shot of Westeros and Essos before zooming in on the city of King's Landing, in particular the sigil of House Baratheon on what appears to be a large gear in the middle of the city. The gear begins turning, moving other cogs, and then three-dimensional buildings start rising out of the ground, such as the Red Keep and the Great Sept of Baelor.

Once the city is assembled, the camera moves north across Westeros to Winterfell, which similarly rises out of the ground while a gear bearing the sigil of House Stark rotates. The camera pays particular attention to the godswood of Winterfell and its heart tree as it rises out of the ground before panning up to the sun and astrolabe. There is then another close-up of the detail on the astrolabe, this time showing the Stark direwolf, Lannister lion and Baratheon stag engaging the Targaryen dragon in combat, a reference to Robert's Rebellion.

The camera returns to Winterfell and then pans north to the Wall, where more gears start turning and Castle Black emerges from the ground, while the pulley lift emerges from the face of the Wall. The camera pulls all the way back to King's Landing before moving across the Narrow Sea to the Free City of Pentos, which similarly emerges from the ground while gears rotate.

The title sequence ends with a return to the relief detail of the astrolabe, now showing the animals representing the various noble houses of Westeros bowing to the triumphant Baratheon stag. The Game of Thrones logo then appears over the astrolabe, with the heads of a dragon, wolf, lion, and stag emerging from the side of the logo.

The title sequence was inspired by the maps of Westeros that precede each novel in the series (and maps in fantasy novels in general). The creators decided to place the map on the inner surface of a sphere with a Copernican armillary at the center. The camera would then visit different parts of the map, while illustrations on the astrolabe covered some of the backstory to the series. The turning gears and cogs were meant to be reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's inventions.

As for why it is specifically an astrolabe with moving parts, producer Greg Spence explained that Angus Wall at Elastic came up with "a vision of a mad monk, in a tower somewhere," who was somehow keeping track of all this action, "and creating as he went. He would then fashion little automatons out of the materials that would be available in his world. They would be stone, or tin, or wood, and everything would feel very hand-crafted."

Conception

The title sequence was created by a company named Elastic, which had previously created the title sequences for Rome, Big Love and Carnivale for HBO. The latter won them an Emmy Award.

Rules

In an interview during Season 5, producer Greg Spence explained several rules about which locations appear in each episode's opening sequence. These rules explain "why the map doesn't always match up exactly to what appears in the episode."

"First, as a rule, every episode's map must contain King's Landing, Winterfell, The Wall, and "wherever Daenerys is at the moment" - even if Daenerys does not appear in that episode." The reason for this rule about Daenerys is because her locations outside of Westeros help show the vast sweep of the entire world, which is larger than just the one continent Westeros. If the camera simply panned up from King's Landing, to Winterfell, and then the Wall, it wouldn't really show much of the world at all. As Spence said:

"The way the main title, and the way that the camera travels, and crossing the Narrow Sea into Essos is important to us, because it communicates the expanse of the show, and it helps to remind the audience of the entire world in which the show takes place. I think if we tried to limit the main title to just places that appear in the episodes, or we're literally tracing each character, it would be more confusing and less successful at its primary task, which is really orienting people to the world."

Winterfell also appears in every episode, even though during seasons 3 and 4 it was never physically visited. Again, this is to ground the most important parts of the world within the narrative: King's Landing is the capital city, the Wall is meant to hold back the return of the White Walkers, and Winterfell is the home of all the Starks.

"Second, they don't always have the time and resources to create specific animations for every minor location - thus the capital of a region is often used as a stand-in to represent the overall territory." For example, at the beginning of Season 5 the Eyrie appears in the title sequence, even though Sansa and Littlefinger left it at the end of Season 4.

Instead, they are at Runestone, a major castle in the Vale. Even so, Spence explained, they didn't make a separate animation for Runestone, because it would only appear in that one episode and wasn't that important to the storyline as a whole, so it didn't justify the time and expense in creating an entirely new animation. Therefore, the Eyrie appears in that title sequence to represent the Vale as a whole, because it is the capital.

These budget constraints are also why they haven't made animations for many important locations which only appear once or twice: they have to skew their choices towards locations which they know are going to reappear more than once, so the money invested in producing each animation will get as much use as possible.

Pentos only appeared once in the first four seasons (and through Season 5 has been the rarest location), but it appeared in the first episode due to the rule that they need to show where Daenerys is.

"Third, and perhaps most importantly, they can only show a limited number of locations in the 90 second duration of the opening sequence." The title sequence is never going to be delayed longer, in part due to the finite length of the opening theme song. The length of each animation is also fixed: they are never going to speed up or slow down the Winterfell animation. Added to this is the time it takes for the camera to zoom in and out, and pan across the globe, which can vary depending on which locations are in a single episode.

The combined result is that through Season 5, no opening sequence has ever contained more than six locations, because there physically isn't enough time to fit more in (they might have more than six at a later point, if two are close together).

This became particularly notable in Season 5: up to that point, Daenerys (and her associated storyline) was the only major character not in Westeros (barring Stannis's one-episode trip to Braavos in Season 4). Starting in Season 5, however, other characters start traveling to the eastern continent, particularly Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister, and Varys. Meanwhile, the TV series also physically visited Dorne for the first time, at the extreme southern end of Westeros - meaning it would take even longer for the camera to pan down to it. Also consider that each title sequence, as a rule, must show the Wall - which is on the exact opposite lengthwise side of the entire continent.

For example, in episode 5.2, besides the four constant locations (King's Landing, Winterfell, the Wall, and Daenerys in Meereen), the other major locations were Arya in Braavos, Tyrion in (the outskirts of) Pentos, the Eyrie for Sansa in the Vale, and the introduction of Dorne. This amounted to eight locations, and all at the far corners of the map, so there just wasn't enough time to zoom to each of them. Thus, the new Dorne animation could not debut in this episode, and the Braavos animation didn't appear either. Greg Spence explained that they simply have to weigh how many motions the camera can physically make in a limited amount of time, and make tradeoffs relative to how important a location is in a given episode.

Similarly, in episode 5.3, in addition to the core four locations, both Sansa and Brienne went to Moat Cailin, Arya was in Braavos, and Tyrion arrived at Volantis. While Volantis is an important location within the narrative and characters have discussed it throughout the TV series, it has only physically been visited in this one episode, and they don't know if it will ever be physically revisited - meaning it didn't justify the expense of creating an entirely new Volantis-animation that would only get used once. It also would have involved a large amount of panning by the camera, because Braavos is the northernmost Free City and Volantis is the southernmost.

List of elements

The following tables list the locations and cast names shown in each episode's title sequence, in the order of their appearance in the sequence as determined by the first episode in which they are shown. With a few exceptions, a cast member's name only appears if he or she appears in the episode. The locations King's Landing, Winterfell, and The Wall are featured in every title sequence, as well as the most recent location in Essos, even if they are not present in that particular episode. It is also noteworthy that the appearance of Winterfell has changed over the seasons: in Seasons 3 and 4 Winterfell was covered in smoke, referencing its burning at the end of Season 2, and in Season 5 the smoke was removed but the Bolton sigil replaced the Stark sigil, reflecting how the Boltons moved to Winterfell during that season.

Season 1

	Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing											10
The Eyrie											4
The Twins											1
Winterfell											10
The Wall											10
Pentos											1
Vaes Dothrak											9
Cast members
Sean Bean											10
Mark Addy											7
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau											8
Michelle Fairley											9
Lena Headey											10
Emilia Clarke											9
Iain Glen											9
Aidan Gillen											8
Harry Lloyd											5
Kit Harington											8
Sophie Turner											9
Maisie Williams											9
Richard Madden											8
Alfie Allen											9
Isaac Hempstead-Wright											8
Jack Gleeson											10
Rory McCann											8
Peter Dinklage											9

Season 2

	Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing											10
Dragonstone											3
Harrenhal											7
Pyke											9
Winterfell											10
The Wall											10
Vaes Dothrak											3
Qarth											7
Cast members
Peter Dinklage											10
Lena Headey											9
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau											4
Michelle Fairley											8
Emilia Clarke											8
Aidan Gillen											7
Iain Glen											7
Kit Harington											8
Charles Dance											7
Liam Cunningham											6
Isaac Hempstead-Wright											7
Richard Madden											6
Sophie Turner											7
Maisie Williams											9
Alfie Allen											8
John Bradley											6
Jack Gleeson											6
Rory McCann											5
Stephen Dillane											7
Natalie Dormer											4
Carice van Houten											4
James Cosmo											3
Jerome Flynn											7
Conleth Hill											6
Sibel Kekilli											8

Season 3

	Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing											10
Dragonstone											4
Harrenhal											8
Riverrun											6
The Twins											2
Winterfell											10
The Wall											10
Astapor											4
Yunkai											6
Cast members
Peter Dinklage											9
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau											7
Lena Headey											8
Emilia Clarke											8
Kit Harington											8
Richard Madden											7
Iain Glen											8
Michelle Fairley											8
Aidan Gillen											4
Charles Dance											8
Liam Cunningham											4
Stephen Dillane											5
Carice van Houten											6
Natalie Dormer											6
Isaac Hempstead-Wright											6
John Bradley											8
Jack Gleeson											7
Sophie Turner											8
Maisie Williams											9
Alfie Allen											6
Oona Chaplin											6
Joe Dempsie											8
Sibel Kekilli											6
Rose Leslie											8
James Cosmo											4
Conleth Hill											5
Rory McCann											8
Jerome Flynn											4

Season 4

	Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing											10
Dragonstone											5
The Dreadfort											7
Moat Cailin											3
Winterfell											10
The Wall											10
Braavos											5
Meereen											10
Cast members
Peter Dinklage											8
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau											9
Lena Headey											9
Emilia Clarke											8
Kit Harington											8
Aidan Gillen											5
Charles Dance											7
Natalie Dormer											6
Liam Cunningham											4
Stephen Dillane											4
Carice van Houten											3
Alfie Allen											3
Jack Gleeson											3
Isaac Hempstead-Wright											4
Sophie Turner											7
Maisie Williams											6
John Bradley											7
Rose Leslie											5
Kristofer Hivju											5
Hannah Murray											3
Rory McCann											6
Gwendoline Christie											7
Jerome Flynn											4
Sibel Kekilli											4
Iwan Rheon											3
Conleth Hill											6
Iain Glen											7

Season 5

	Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing											10
The Eyrie											2
Moat Cailin											1
Winterfell											10
The Wall											10
Pentos											1
Braavos											9
Meereen											10
Dorne											7
Cast members
Peter Dinklage											10
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau											7
Lena Headey											8
Emilia Clarke											8
Kit Harington											9
Aidan Gillen											6
Charles Dance											1
Natalie Dormer											5
Stephen Dillane											8
Liam Cunningham											7
Carice van Houten											6
Indira Varma											5
John Bradley											9
Sophie Turner											9
Maisie Williams											6
Kristofer Hivju											5
Hannah Murray											6
Conleth Hill											4
Alfie Allen											6
Jerome Flynn											6
Gwendoline Christie											6
Michiel Huisman											7
Nathalie Emmanuel											7
Dean-Charles Chapman											5
Tom Wlaschiha											6
Michael McElhatton											4
Iwan Rheon											6
Iain Glen											8

Season 6

	Ep. 1	Ep. 2	Ep. 3	Ep. 4	Ep. 5	Ep. 6	Ep. 7	Ep. 8	Ep. 9	Ep. 10	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing
The Eyrie
Pyke
Winterfell
The Wall
Braavos
Vaes Dothrak
Meereen
Dorne
Cast members
Peter Dinklage
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Lena Headey
Emilia Clarke
Kit Harington
Aidan Gillen
Natalie Dormer
Liam Cunningham
Carice van Houten
Indira Varma
John Bradley
Sophie Turner
Nathalie Emmanuel
Maisie Williams
Conleth Hill
Alfie Allen
Tom Wlaschiha
Gwendoline Christie
Jonathan Pryce
Kristofer Hivju
Hannah Murray
Michiel Huisman
Michael McElhatton
Iwan Rheon
Dean-Charles Chapman
Isaac Hempstead-Wright
Iain Glen

Summary

	S. 1	S. 2	S. 3	S. 4	S. 5	S. 6	Total Count
Locations
King's Landing	10	10	10	10	10	6	56
Winterfell	10	10	10	10	10	6	56
The Wall	10	10	10	10	10	6	56
Meereen	N/A	N/A	N/A	10	10	6	26
Braavos	N/A	N/A	N/A	5	9	4	18
Vaes Dothrak	9	3	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	15
Harrenhal	N/A	7	8	N/A	N/A		15
Pyke	N/A	9	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	12
Dragonstone	N/A	3	4	5	N/A		12
Dorne	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7	1	8
The Eyrie	4	N/A	N/A	N/A	2	1	7
The Dreadfort	N/A	N/A	N/A	7	N/A		7
Qarth	N/A	7	N/A	N/A	N/A		7
Riverrun	N/A	N/A	6	N/A	N/A		6
Yunkai	N/A	N/A	6	N/A	N/A		6
Moat Cailin	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	1		4
Astapor	N/A	N/A	4	N/A	N/A		4
The Twins	1	N/A	2	N/A	N/A		3
Pentos	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	1		2
Cast members
Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister)	9	10	9	8	10	5	51
Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister)	10	9	8	9	8	5	49
Kit Harington (Jon Snow)	8	8	8	8	9	5	46
Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen)	9	8	8	8	8	5	46
Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark)	9	7	8	7	9	4	44
Maisie Williams (Arya Stark)	9	9	9	6	6	5	44
Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont)	9	7	8	7	8	3	42
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister)	8	4	7	9	7	5	40
Alfie Allen (Theon Greyjoy)	9	8	6	3	6	4	36
Aiden Gillen (Petyr Baelish)	8	7	4	5	6	2	32
John Bradley (Samwell Tarly)	N/A	6	8	7	9	2	32
Isaac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark)	8	7	6	4	N/A	4	29
Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane)	8	5	8	6	N/A	N/A	27
Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth)	N/A	6	4	4	7	5	26
Conleth Hill (Varys)	N/A	6	5	6	4	5	26
Jack Gleeson (Joffrey Baratheon)	10	6	7	3	N/A	N/A	26
Michelle Fairley (Catelyn Stark)	9	8	8	N/A	N/A	N/A	25
Carice van Houten (Melisandre)	N/A	4	6	3	6	5	24
Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell)	N/A	4	6	6	5	3	24
Stephen Dillane (Stannis Baratheon)	N/A	7	5	4	8	N/A	24
Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister)	N/A	7	8	7	1	N/A	23
Jerome Flynn (Bronn)	N/A	7	4	4	6		21
Richard Madden (Robb Stark)	8	6	7	N/A	N/A	N/A	21
Sibel Kekilli (Shae)	N/A	8	6	4	N/A	N/A	18
Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth)	N/A	N/A	N/A	7	6	4	17
Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Snow)	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	6	4	13
Kristofer Hivju (Tormund Giantsbane)	N/A	N/A	N/A	5	5	3	13
Rose Leslie (Ygritte)	N/A	N/A	8	5	N/A	N/A	13
Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7	4	11
Hannah Murray (Gilly)	N/A	N/A	N/A	3	6	2	11
Sean Bean (Ned Stark)	10	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	10
Jason Momoa (Khal Drogo)	9	1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	10
Michiel Huisman (Daario Naharis)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7	3	10
Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H'ghar)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	6	4	10
Dean-Charles Chapman (Tommen Baratheon)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	5	4	9
Joe Dempsie (Gendry)	N/A	N/A	8	N/A	N/A		8
James Cosmo (Jeor Mormont)	N/A	3	4	N/A	N/A	N/A	7
Mark Addy (Robert Baratheon)	7	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	7
Oona Chaplin (Talisa Maegyr)	N/A	N/A	7	N/A	N/A	N/A	7
Indira Varma (Ellaria Sand)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	5	1	6
Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	4	2	6
Jonathan Pryce (High Sparrow)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	5	5
Harry Lloyd (Viserys Targaryen)	5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	5

Homage

The Simpsons episode "Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart" features a homage to the Game of Thrones title sequence, with famous buildings in the town of Springfield rising through the ground as characters watch on, dressed in Game of Thrones-style costumes. The Wall is replaced by the monolithic "Couch" at the end of the sequence.

Awards

The title sequence won a Creative Arts Emmy Award on September 10, 2011.

External links

• Game of Thrones - A Q&A with Creative Director Angus Wall of Elastic. May 12, 2011, WRITER: Will Perkins, INTERVIEW: Ian Albinson, LAST UPDATE: June 29, 2011 at Art of the Title
• Secrets Behind 'Game of Thrones' Opening Credits (Video) - An interview with the creators of the title sequence 1:24 PM 4/19/2011 by Tim Appelo at HollywoodReporter.com