Speculation: Why Did Game of Thrones leave Croatia? 

Since the second season of the show went into production, the Old City of Dubrovnik has stood in for King’s Landing, the capital of Westeros, and for a time, the location was considered the heart of the series. Unlike Northern Ireland, which has stood in for the North since the pilot episode, Dubrovnik wasn’t always King’s Landing—Essos and the Southern Westerosi climates were originally filmed in Morocco for the pilot and Malta for Season 1. But for most

junkies, Dubrovnik and Croatia are all they’ve ever known as King’s Landing, and quite a few of them were surprised to hear that the production would pass over the place in favor of Spain when filming Season 6.

Now, there are several theories as to why the show changed venues. The most popular stems from the troubles the show had last season, when the

Church of St Nicholas (which had been standing in for the Sept of Baelor)

kicked up a fuss over filming Cersei’s Walk of Shame on their holy steps. This is understandable—the scene is a shocking one, and involved both Lena Heady doing take after take in a grey shift that was nearly see thru, as well as her body double filming it fully in the buff. It may be the 21st century, but most churches aren’t willing to condone that sort of spectacle. At the time, there were reports that the production was scrambling to find new locations, but in the end, everyone worked it out, and insisted that there was no issue between the city and the production.

It’s also been theorized that Spain might be giving the show extra tax breaks. After all, unlike Dubrovnik, which was not a major filming location before

Almeria has been the backdrop for several major movies over the decades, from old spaghetti westerns through to today’s biblical epics. We cannot speculate on that, and perhaps we won’t ever know the answer.

But what we do know is that Spain was incredibly vocal about its excitement last year when

arrived to film scenes in Dorne, the first time the production had visited the country. But even though the locals were excited, the nation managed to keep things under wraps—all of the Dornish scenes were kept hidden, except for what the production itself released. Compare that to Dubrovnik, where the high walls allow hundreds of tourists to look down and take pictures of the filming. (There is a striking moment in the

special where the director, after saying “Quiet on the Set,” then has to yell the same thing at the hundreds of tourists watching from above.)

Then there are some of the other money-centric factors, like the fact that Dubrovnik’s Old City doesn’t allow car traffic, which makes loading in the sets and props far more arduous than it might be in a different setting. These could all be factors, but again, it’s hard to be sure.

than struck me as part of the reason for the move. It was a discussion with the Emmy nominated production designers of various shows about the factors that went into choosing sets, props, design, etc. Production designer Deborah Riley, who is nominated this year for

mentioned how hard it was to find areas to film Braavos.

“It had to feel unlike anywhere we had ever seen before and be made up of canals and islands that are connected by bridges,” says Riley. “It also had to be found right next to where we shoot our other locations. This meant that it had to be in Croatia and near Dubrovnik, where we shoot King’s Landing, or Split, where we established Meereen. It also had to not have too many modern elements as we needed to keep as many scenes as ‘in camera’ as possible, with minimum intervention from the art department.”

“It also had to be found right next to where we shoot our other locations.” 

Now, we fans of GoT take for granted that the show seems to have an infinite budget when it comes to shooting the series. But the fact of the matter is, it doesn’t. And last year, the show stretched itself a huge amount by filming in three countries at once. That may have just been too much. (Though it did make for a great Behind the Scenes video promoting the season.)

We didn’t see that much of Braavos last year, though some of what we did see was actually filmed in Dubrovnik, which then had it’s set flipped over to King’s Landing. It seems like, with no need to film outdoor scenes of Meereen in Split, and the show looking to do some Essos-centric desertscapes in Spain already, the production made the decision to tuck King’s Landing in around Braavos, rather than the other way around, for Season 6.

After all, King’s Landing is no longer the center of the series. At one point, more than 50% of the cast was found in that one location, requiring tons of outdoor scenes, street confrontations, and litter rides. But now, the Starks are gone or dead. The Lannisters are dwindling. The only major character we expect to spend their time in King’s Landing is Cersei, and one can’t imagine that she’ll be going out of doors much after her experience at the end of Season 5.

Instead, we expect to spent time with Blind Arya as she feels her way around Braavos. If the show follows the books at all, Sam and Gilly will make a stop over in Braavos as well on their way to Oldtown. With Braavos becoming more of a focus, it might have seemed prudent to find somewhere that could really stand in for the Free City, and then find one or two locations that could stand in for King’s Landing nearby. And bringing them all to the same continent as the rest of the southern and eastern filming (as well as flashback scenes) would ease the stress of spreading the production all over Europe.

With the president of HBO announcing recently that Benioff and Wiess had relented on their seven season hardline, the showrunners are also going to have to pace themselves for the next three years. I wouldn’t be surprised if the real reason the show left Croatia had very little to do with the logistics of Croatia itself, and more to do with retrenching in order to keep their sanity. And if there were a few tax breaks along the way, all the better.

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Easy: Money. I would bet it has everything to do with saving money.

Because kings landing will be ruined by dragons?

I think we’ll see King’s Landing in white this season Winter’s gonna arrive.

I think we’ll see King’s Landing in white this season. And maybe ruined by white walkers like we’ve seen in the tower which Daenerys kept.

I thought the ruined Hall in Kings’ landing was the result of Dragons…

I don’t think that I think when daenerys was in that tower and she saw the hall in snow and it was burned down it was I think that was some kind of vision where the snow represents jon snow and the burned down bit is Jon’s Targaryen side

I think your possible reasons are pretty reasonable. I wonder how much of it is that it’s just easier to shoot in Spain than in Croatia. Given that the producers, the author of the series, the network producing the series, and probably its biggest star (Dinklage) are all Americans, Spain is closer to them than Croatia is. I would also imagine the logistics are easier to shoot just in Spain than Spain and Croatia. It’s far easier and cheaper to just get on a train to a few cities over than it would be to have fly halfway across the continent.

I also wonder how the effect of language. Spanish is widely taught in the US and is an A-level offering in the UK while it’s much, much harder to find someone from those countries who knows Croatian. So you would have to rely more on natives people who know English.

Croats speak English a hell of a lot better than Spaniards do.

I think your possible reasons are pretty reasonable. I wonder how much of it is that it’s just easier to shoot in Spain than in Croatia. Given that the producers, the author of the series, the network producing the series, and probably its biggest star (Dinklage) are all Americans, Spain is closer to them than Croatia is. I would also imagine the logistics are easier to shoot just in Spain than Spain and Croatia. It’s far easier and cheaper to just get on a train to a few cities over than it would be to have fly halfway across the continent.

I also wonder how the effect of language. Spanish is widely taught in the US and is an A-level offering in the UK while it’s much, much harder to find someone from those countries who knows Croatian. So you would have to rely more on natives people who know English.

In Croatia, especially in the region Dalmatia almost everyone speaks english. English is mandatory foreign language in schools.

And Croatia is not really that far away from Spain. Croatia is near Italy. So you only have Italy and France between the Croatia and Spain.

Main reason why they are not filming this season in Dubrovnik is, because King’s Landing will have very, very small part in Season 6. Most scenes will be indoor. So to save money they will filmed few outdoor scenes in Spain, and reuse scenes already filmed in Dubrovnik. It would be too expensive for them to go in Croatia to shoot only few scenes.

Off screen reason : Money, Spain offers better government rebate.

On screen reason : King’s Landing will be toasted soon……

I thought Old Towne was in southern Wsteros? Why would Sam and Gilly go to Bravos (in Essos) on their way to Old Town. Old Town is just south of High Garden, at the southern coast with The Arbour off the coast.

Because the only harbour the Watch has is in the east, so they go the long way around, and use a bravosii that trades with the Watch to get to Bravos, then get another ship from there to oldtown (which is in the south west)

If I remember the books correctly (and I might not be!) Sam and Gilly take a merchant ship from Eastwatch. It’s going to Braavos first, then on to Old town, probably via other trading ports along the western edge of the Narrow Sea but but things with Master Aemon take a turn for the worse….

Don’t know whether you’re a book reader or not so I won’t spoil it for you.

Sam and Gilly were taking the cart to Eastwatch on the Sea and most boats that come and go to eastwatch come from braavos…so they sail to braavos then on to Sam’s home before Sam finally gets to Old town.

One might think logistics, moving production around to 3 sites is probably a chore.

Spain is much bigger with a possibility for any number of locations.

Plus Spain has long long history of cinema production probably has more experienced film companies than Croatia.

Money at this point , I don’t think is an issue, HBO has a phenomenon on their hands which will go god-knows-where. Its was 100 million season 5, Time-Warner would give then 200 million now if they wanted it.

Croatian coast is also very big and full of historical towns. Dubrovnik, Split and Sibenik are only fraction of Croatia coast.

They never shoot in Istria region. Istria has many great location.

For example city of Pula has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheatre in the world.

They did not even scratch the surface of all beatiful locations of Croatia.

They did not even scratch the surface of all beatiful location of Croatia.

Let’s hope Girona measures up with Dubrovnik and Malta.

Bravoos scenes are filmed mostly in city of Sibenik and Kastel Gomilica, only scenes near black and white temple are filmed in Dubrovnik.

So article is wrong. What is really surprising, when one considers that this portal followed filming in Sibenik.

Kastel Gomilica. Many Bravoos scenes are filmed here too.

Sibenik and Kastel Gomilica are not really near Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is in southern Dalmatia. Sibenik and Kastel Gomilica are in central Dalmatia.

Both Sibenik and Kastel Gomilica are beautiful historic coastal towns.

At some point KL needs to get snowed upon. Perhaps Croatia is not as conducive to portraying the city in that way

Naw.. “ruined” KL will consist of a lot of CG-work anyway. They can’t just tear down historical buildings in a real city just so it’ll look convincing on-screen. And they can’t cover an entire city in artificial snow, so all that stuff would have to be handled by a combination of CGI and some set-dressing for medium or close-up shots.

Speaking of which: KL has always featured “extended” or “added” elements. The whole Red Keep is one of those elements. So they have to do a lot of doctoring in the wide shots no matter where they shoot. As long as they find an old city with medieval looking buildings, narrow streets and the right overall look, they should be able to re-create the established look of KL. I mean: When I compare season 1 KL to season 2-5 KL, I don’t see a difference big enough to take me out of the story.

My guess is that it’s a question of money and convenience. After four seasons, Dubrovnik may either have gotten too “greedy” or made demands the production was unwilling/unable to meet. Personally, I don’t think KL will be absent from season 6. I mean: The way we left Cersei, I sure as hell hope we won’t have to wait until season 7 to see how things unfold with her and FrankenClegane.

I trust that HBO know what they are doing… although I do have concerns that unless they build huge sets in spain to be the new Kingslanding to make the streets look and feel the same as what we have seen…. my worry is that will the visuals look completely different to what we know.

Not entirely sure that this is completely the case. Let’s just say that I worked on GOT as part of Croatian crew last few years, and there was a plan to film in Croatia this year. Preps should have started around time HBO gave press release that they won’t be coming back to Croatia. As I understand, there was a plan for production to be here 5-6 weeks this year. I still haven’t got any info on why they skipped this year. Something snapped, that’s for sure.

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