Screenshot : Game of Thrones I’m sad to report that the Starbucks cup that wound up in an episode of Game of Thrones is there no longer. Advertisement After the white-lidded beverage turned up in a pivotal scene centered on Daenerys Targaryen during episode 4 of season 8, it didn’t take long before the Mother of Dragons became the Mother of Memes—lots of them. Because what the hell is a Starbucks cup doing in the final cut of a show for which each individual episode costs many millions of dollars? Following some creative theories about how the drink landed in front of actor Emilia Clarke, HBO copped to the cup being a “mistake” and claimed in a statement that “Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.” But good-humored as HBO appeared to be about the whole thing, it was sure quick to move on scrubbing the cup in question from the scene. As of Tuesday afternoon, it was gone. The image at the top of the article is how it appeared prior to removal. Here’s how the scene looks now, sans Starbucks (and lightened for clarity): Screenshot : Game of Thrones ( Gizmodo ) Game of Thrones art director Hauke Richter told Variety on Monday that the incident was “so blown out of proportion [because] it has not happened with Thrones so far.” As Variety noted, Jaime Lannister (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau ) was pictured holding what appears to be a coffee cup in a behind-the-scenes clip from season 4, but that never made it into the final cut. Reached by email, a spokesperson for HBO confirmed the cup had been removed but did not offer further comment. Starbucks declined on Tuesday to comment on the removal, but the company did manage to turn HBO’s error into a marketing opportunity by tweeting on Monday that “we’re surprised she didn’t order a Dragon Drink.” Ha ha. Don’t you feel like you and Starbucks could be friends in real life if brands were people? Advertisement Anyway, RIP to the latest Game of Thrones cast member to be killed off. It was a fitting death, all things considered. Now it’s time to get the #ReleaseTheStarbucksCupCut campaign going. Twitter, do your thing.<doc-sep>Forget all the fan theories, all people can seem to talk about is that damned coffee cup which mistakenly appeared on Game of Thrones. While the cup has now been digitally removed by HBO, actor Liam Cunningham, who plays Sir Davos Seaworth on the show, brought it up again in an interview with Conan O'Brien on Tuesday. "These things happen, it's a big job, people run in, and Emilia [Clarke] probably drinks too much coffee," Cunningham joked. While the actor brought O'Brien a Starbucks cup, it's very likely not the actual one from set. The cup you saw on screen was one from the show's craft services — not the café giant — as reported by the Wall Street Journal. Still, there are other show props which Cunningham has "liberated" from its set, including a full-sized Dothraki sword, a finger bone bag, money, and a hand-carved stag.<doc-sep>May 6, 2019 2 min read Last night's episode of Game of Thrones featured several familiar sights to fans of the show. The Starks were back in Winterfell, their family home, surrounded by their friends. Among them were Tyrion and Jaime Lannister, who traveled to the north together in the show's first episode. We saw the Hound and Samwell Tarly. Even Daenerys Targaryen -- or Khaleesi, as many have come to call her -- was there, sitting beside Jon Snow. But in front of Daenerys, there was something familiar even to those who have never seen the show. my favorite show in the entire world forgot a STARBUCKS COFFEE CUP ON THE TABLE WHILE FILMING pic.twitter.com/60z3pOCfg9 — zane (@zane) May 6, 2019 In all likelihood, the coffee cup was simply left on set by mistake. However, Game of Thrones has always been known for its attention to detail, leading some fans wonder whether its placement was intentional. Perhaps showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (who were actually in the scene with the coffee cup) will introduce time travel in the final two episodes of the show and Daenerys will be able to pop out for a pumpkin spice latte whenever she likes. Personally, I like to think that Starbucks decided to open a new unit in Westeros after taking over every street corner in New York. Related: You Can't Buy a Starbucks Franchise: Here's Why and What You Can Do Instead<doc-sep>"It was his! It was Conleth's coffee cup. He said so. He said ' I think it was, I am sorry, darling, I didn't want to say anything because it seemed the heat was very much on you.' I was like 'what? what!?'"<doc-sep>
HBO has quietly updated the most recent episode of Game of Thrones to digitally remove a coffee cup that accidentally made its way into a scene, setting the internet on fire with a seemingly endless stream of memes in the process. The cup — which HBO confirmed was, in fact, a mistake and not a more sinister attempt at some kind of product placement — was removed from the shot on HBO Go (and, presumably, other streaming platforms as well) sometime overnight, with little fanfare from the TV company. While most of the jokes have centered on the cup being a misplaced Starbucks order, The Wall Street Journal confirmed last night that it actually came from the production’s craft services, not the popular coffee chain. Yesterday, HBO did fess up to the mistake, joking that “the latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.” Sadly, the company only edited out the anachronistic cup instead of really committing to the bit and editing in a more period-appropriate cup of tea. As Bernie Caulfield, an executive producer on Game of Thrones, commented yesterday, these kind of mistakes are rare for a show this big, but slip-ups do happen, and “if that’s the worst thing they’re finding, then we’re in good shape.” It’s not the first time HBO has edited out gaffes like this: last year, a similar incident occurred in Westworld when two cameramen somehow made their way into a shot, only to be later edited out in an updated version of the episode.