HBO won't ever let Game of Thrones look 'too dark' says DP — but it can look different

Cinematographer Gustav Danielsson explains how the series departed from convention, while appeasing HBO's biggest fear Seven months after the purposefully scrappy A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms wrapped its first season, Westeros returned to the kind of scale that has come to define it. House of the Dragon’s third season just concluded on HBO with another enormous, satisfying battle — and we’ll get one more massive, action-heavy season in 2028. But as much as I dig watching dragons and armies fight for control of Westeros, it’s a testament to what the Kingdoms team pulled off that I’m a weeeeee bit nostalgic for that scaled-down saga from just seven months ago. That show was “expanded universe” done right. According to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms cinematographer Gustav Danielsson, who spoke to Polygon on the heels of his Emmy nomination for season 1, the intention was always to illustrate what else Westeros could look like beyond Epic Fantasy. The production wanted to think smaller and rely overwhelmingly on the outdoors. As much as 90% of the series was shot outside around Northern Ireland, Danielsson estimates, trading the elaborate studio environments of HotD for forests, moun