text: winter is coming " winter is coming " is the first episode of the hbo medieval fantasy television series game of thrones . it was written by the show creators david benioff and d. b. weiss , in a faithful adaptation of the first chapters of george r. r. martin 's book a game of thrones . the episode was directed by tim van patten , redoing the work done by director thomas mccarthy in an unaired pilot . as the first episode of the series , it introduces the setting and the main characters of the show . the episode centers on the stark family , and how its lord , eddard stark , gets involved in the court politics after the king chooses eddard to replace his recently deceased chief administrator ( " hand of the king " ) . the episode received largely positive reviews , and was seen initially by 2 . 2 million viewers . a week before the episode first aired , hbo made the first 15 minutes available as an internet preview . plot the episode begins the process of interweaving action happening in multiple separate locations within and around the fictional continent of westeros . most of the action takes place in and around winterfell where lord eddard stark ( sean bean ) is the feudal overlord of the northern reaches of the kingdom . outside of westeros is a land across the narrow sea where the two surviving members of house targaryen , previous rulers of westeros , live in exile . beyond the wall the episode opens with three rangers of the night 's watch - ser royce ( rob ) , will ( bronson webb ) and gared ( dermot keaney ) - scouting beyond the wall , a massive barrier of ice at the north end of the kingdom . after finding the mutilated corpses of some wildlings ( tribal humans who live north of the wall ) , the rangers are confronted by white walkers ( demonic creatures ) and undead wildlings . two of the rangers are killed by the white walkers , while the third , will , is for some reason left alive . fearing for his life , will deserts the night 's watch . in king 's landing queen cersei ( lena headey ) , and her twin brother , jaime lannister ( nikolaj coster - waldau ) , are watching as the dead body of jon arryn , the hand of the king ( john standing ) is tended to by the silent sisters . they discuss whether he revealed any dangerous information regarding the two of them to anyone before his death . jaime assures his sister that if arryn had spoken to anyone , they would already have been executed . in the north after the opening sequence , the starks of winterfell are introduced , including lord eddard " ned " stark , his wife , lady catelyn " cat " stark ( michelle fairley ) and his five children : their heir robb ( richard madden ) , their elder daughter sansa ( sophie turner ) , younger daughter arya ( maisie williams ) , ten - year - old son bran ( isaac hempstead - wright ) and youngest son , ( art parkinson ) . also introduced are ned 's illegitimate son jon snow ( kit harington ) and hostage / ward theon greyjoy ( alfie allen ) , who , like robb , are older teenagers . ned is informed that a deserter of the night 's watch , will , has been captured . members of the night 's watch are sworn never to desert their posts , upon penalty of death . ned takes his sons to witness will 's execution . will faces death bravely , admitting that he deserted the wall after being attacked , but stands by his statement that he saw white walkers . ned himself passes sentence and beheads him . when bran asks his father about the ranger 's talk of white walkers , ned dismisses it as a madman 's ravings , insisting that the walkers have been considered extinct for thousands of years . upon their return , the starks find a dead stag , sigil ( seal ) of house baratheon . a bit farther they find a dead dire wolf and her surviving pups . noting that the dire wolf is the sigil of the stark family and there are as many pups as the stark children ( even an albino runt for jon ) , they take the pups in as companions . back at winterfell , catelyn informs her husband of a letter announcing the death of lord arryn , eddard 's old mentor and catelyn 's brother - in - law . an additional message , brought by a raven , reports that the king himself is coming to winterfell . winterfell receives the royal court , including king robert baratheon ( mark addy ) ; his wife queen cersei ; their three children : the heir prince joffrey ( jack gleeson ) , princess ( aimee richardson ) and the youngest prince ( callum ) ; as well as cersei 's twin brother , jaime lannister , a member of the kingsguard ; and their younger brother , tyrion lannister ( peter dinklage ) , a dwarf known as " the imp . " as robert pays his respects to stark , his late fiancée and ned 's sister , robert confides to his old friend that he doesn 't trust anyone around him . he decides to name ned as the new hand of the king , and to solidify the alliance between the two families , he suggests that ned 's daughter , sansa , be betrothed to his son , joffrey . at night , catelyn receives a troubling message from her sister , lord arryn 's widow . she suspects her husband jon was murdered by the king 's in - laws , the powerful lannisters . ned , who at first was reluctant to accept the position of hand of the king , does so in order to protect his old friend . bran , who enjoys climbing the walls of winterfell , climbs an abandoned tower where he stumbles on queen cersei and jaime having sex . to keep the incestuous relationship a secret , jaime shoves bran out of the high window . in pentos exiled prince viserys targaryen ( harry lloyd ) plots to overthrow king robert and reclaim his father 's throne . to this end , he brokers a marriage between his sister daenerys ( emilia clarke ) and a powerful warlord khal drogo ( jason momoa ) , leader of a nomadic horde of dothraki . daenerys voices her fear of the barbarian lord , but her brother tells her to marry him . during the wedding ceremony , daenerys is given two wedding gifts . the first is a collection of books from the seven kingdoms , given by ser jorah mormont ( iain glen ) , an exiled knight loyal to the targaryens . the second gift is a chest containing three petrified dragon eggs , given by magister illyrio ( roger allam ) , the man who helped arrange the marriage . production conception and development a number of hollywood studios had contacted george r.r. martin about possible adaption of his book series a song of ice and fire into a film , however martin expressed the opinion the books could not be made into a film as too much would have to be cut from the books , but thought it could be made into a television series . in january 2006 , david benioff spoke to martin 's literary agent about the books he represented for possible adaption , and the agent sent the first four books of a song of fire and ice to david benioff . benioff read a few hundred pages of the first book in the series , a game of thrones , called d. b. weiss and said : " maybe i ’ m crazy , but i haven ’ t had this much fun reading anything in about 20 years . so take a look because i think it might make a great hbo series . " weiss , who then read the first book in two days , was very enthusiastic about a possible television project based on the books . they arranged a meeting with george rr martin , who asked them if they knew who jon snow ’ s real mother might be , and was satisfied with their answer . in march 2006 , a few weeks after meeting martin , benioff and weiss pitched the show to showtime and carolyn strauss of hbo , who accepted their proposal . hbo acquired the rights to the novels to turn them into a television series , with benioff and weiss as writers and executive producers of the series . the series went into development in january 2007 . the series would begin with the 1996 first book of a song of fire and ice , " a game of thrones " , with the intention that each novel in the series would form the basis for a season 's worth of episodes . however , benioff and weiss had to resubmit a proposal after carolyn strauss stepped down as president of hbo in 2008 . the first and second drafts of the pilot script , written by benioff and weiss , were submitted in august 2007 and june 2008 respectively . while hbo found both drafts to their liking , a pilot was not ordered until november 2008 . writing scripted by the show creators david benioff and d. b. weiss , the first episode includes the plot of the book 's chapters 1 – 7 , 9 and 12 ( prologue , bran i , catelyn i , daenerys i , eddard i , jon i , catelyn ii , bran ii , daenerys ii ) . changes in the adaptation include the sequence of events in the prologue ( in the books it is gared and not will who survives and is beheaded by eddard afterwards ) , new scenes showing the lannister twins ' perspective , and daenerys ' wedding night showing drogo not waiting for her to consent to sex . filming tom mccarthy was chosen to direct the pilot episode , shot between 24 october and 19 november 2009 on location in northern ireland , scotland and morocco . however , the pilot was deemed unsatisfactory and had to be reshot . the new pilot episode was filmed in 2010 by new director tim van patten , and several actors appearing in the original pilot did not return for the series . merchant was replaced as daenerys targaryen by emilia clarke , and jennifer ehle was replaced as catelyn stark by michelle fairley . additionally , ian mcneice was replaced as magister illyrio by roger allam , richard ridings as gared by dermot keaney , and jamie campbell bower as ser royce by rob . another difference is that the original pilot featured scenes shot in scotland and scenes in pentos were shot in morocco , but in the aired series , winterfell was filmed in a combination of locations in northern ireland , while scenes from pentos were from malta . the doune castle in scotland was originally used to recreate winterfell , and its great hall was used for some interior shots . some scenes survived , but as it was not practical to return to scotland for the reshoot , an exact replica of doune 's great hall was recreated in the soundstage in belfast for the series . castle ward in northern ireland was used in the reshoot to film king robert 's entourage entry into winterfell castle . a car park stood in for the winterfell castle 's courtyard and a wine cellar for the stark family crypt . the forest park was used for the opening scene of the encounter with the white walkers . all the scenes shot in morocco were reshot in malta . the original pilot reused the sets of kingdom of heaven in morocco to stand in for pentos and the site of drogo and daenerys ' wedding . in malta , the verdala palace , the 16th century summer palace of the president of malta , was used for the exterior scenes at illyrio 's mansion . the azure window was used as the backdrop for the wedding . filming at the azure window however caused some controversy when a protected ecosystem was damaged by a subcontractor . in the sex scene , the then - pregnant lena headey was substituted by a body double ; the production hid her pregnancy for the rest of the season . in the scene in which the starks encounter a stag killed by a dire wolf as they return from the execution , an actual animal was used rather than a prop . as the stag had been dead for two days , it stank so much that the actors had to take much care not to let it show on their faces . some scenes filmed were never aired , for the example a flashback to the death of eddard stark 's brother , and the death of jon arryn . the original pilot the original pilot from 2009 was poorly received in a private viewing with friends , one of whom , craig mazin , said to benioff and weiss , " you guys have a massive problem " , and said " change everything " when asked for ideas . weiss said of the viewing : " watching them watch the pilot was a deeply humiliating , painful experience , because these are very smart individuals , and it just clearly wasn ’ t working for any of them on a very basic level . " for example , it was never established that the two major characters , jaime and cersei lannister were in fact brother and sister , a major plot point . hbo did not make a decision for four months after the pilot was delivered . in march 2010 , hbo 's decision to greenlight the series including the pilot was announced , with the production of the series scheduled to start june 2010 . hbo however demanded extensive reshoot of the pilot , and wanted all the scenes from morocco scrapped . a cameo appearance by george rr martin as a nobleman at daenerys ' wedding filmed in morocco was therefore also cut . in all 90 percent of the pilot was re - shot in 2010 , with some cast changes and a different director . aired episode the original pilot remained unaired , although some footage from the original pilot was used in the first aired episode . this includes sansa 's scenes with catelyn ( michelle fairley 's footage as catelyn was inserted over jennifer ehle 's performance ) , will 's ride through the woods ( retained though also portrayed by a different actor ) , most of the feast at winterfell , and ned and robert 's scene in the crypt . that scene is one of a few to be filmed on 35 mm film , and consequently slight film grain can be seen in the hd version of the episode . reception preview on april 3 , 2011 , two weeks before the series premiere aired , the first 15 minutes of " winter is coming " were released as a preview on hbo 's website . wired 's dave banks called the preview " much better than anticipated . ( how ’ s that even possible ? ) " scott stinson of toronto 's national post noted that " you know you aren ’ t watching a network drama when there have been two beheadings in the first 15 minutes . " ratings the first episode of game of thrones obtained 2 . 2 million viewers in its premiere airing , with an additional 2 million viewers in the reruns aired during the same night . the day after the premiere hbo aired the episode six additional times , adding another 1 . 2 million to the viewer 's figures . reruns aired during the following week upped the total viewership to 6 . 8 million . international the show premiered on hbo canada at the same time as its u.s. premiere . on april 18 , 2011 , the show premiered in united kingdom and ireland through sky atlantic , gathering 750 , 000 viewers , a ratings record for the network . the series was broadcast throughout latin america beginning on may 8 , 2011 . new zealand 's dominion post noted in an article on copyright laws that the popular series was downloaded via file sharing service regularly before its release to that market . in australia , the july 17 premiere of the series was largely overshadowed by the release of a dance with dragons , but according to the sydney morning herald was successful " especially with women , who aren 't seen as a target market for sword - fighting sagas " . critical response the critical response to the first episode of the series was positive . review aggregator rotten tomatoes surveyed 10 reviews of the episode and judged 100 % of them to be positive . the website 's critical consensus reads , " ' winter is coming ' is an introduction to a wonderfully bleak journey that honors its source material with stellar execution and an impressive cast . " james poniewozik from time considered it an " epic win , " and jace lacob from the daily beast deemed it " unforgettable . " hitfix 's alan sepinwall wrote that while it was too early to say if game of thrones belonged to the hbo pantheon with shows like the sopranos or the wire , it had many things in common with those shows . ign 's matt fowler wrote that the pilot " effortlessly takes us along , faithfully , through the book , but it also manages to capture the majestically morbid spirit of martin 's pages and turn them into thrilling television . " much praise was given to the production values and the acting : scott meslow from the atlantic states that " the show 's immense cast is almost universally strong , and the fantasy land of westeros feels lived - in , and looks terrific . " alan sepinwall also qualifies the casting as " really exceptional , " and states that the show is " feast for the eyes , " with all the different locations having their own memorable looks . the opening sequence , with an aerial view of the world where the series takes place with the different settings emerging from it , was also acclaimed . on april 19 , less than two days after the initial airing , hbo announced that the series had been renewed for a second season . in a press teleconference , hbo executives announced their satisfaction with initial ratings , which they compared favorably to true blood . accolades tim van patten received a 2011 primetime emmy award nomination for outstanding directing for a drama series , and the episode was also nominated for outstanding makeup for a single - camera series ( non - prosthetic ) . awards and nominations