I was too tired to wake up at 3am to watch the latest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones live yesterday morning. This meant I had to avoid certain parts of the internet for the entire day until I could watch it last night. Try as I might though, I could not avoid discussions about the episode. Or at least, one very particular moment in the episode: The Starbucks coffee cup.
In what rapidly became the internet’s new favourite meme, during a raucous feast at Winterfell early in the episode, a totally anachronous coffee cup can be spotted sitting on the table next to Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys and Kit Harrington’s Jon Snow. What’s more, it looked like a Starbucks coffee cup.
It’s barely visible in the episode as it’s only on screen for a very brief period, but somebody saw it and the internet immediately went wild with jokes and memes to the point where moderators on a Game of Thrones subreddit were deleting posts because they had become so bombarded with them.
Hilariously, instead of scrambling in panic, HBO actually responded to the entire fiasco with a joke of their own. “News from Winterfell. The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea,” the official Game of Thrones Twitter account tweeted out.
Exec producer Bernadette Caulfield also apologized during an interview with WNYC, after jokingly revealing that “Westeros was the first place to have Starbucks, it’s a little-known fact.” Starbucks themselves also got in on the fun, by tweeting out that they were “surprised she didn’t order a Dragon Drink.”
But how did a coffee cup end up there? A simple mistake really. As the show’s art director, Hauke Richter, explained to Variety, “Things can get forgotten on set”. This is not some rare event and actually occurs fairly regularly in big TV series and movie productions. Especially when it comes to something as nondescript as a coffee cup in a scene overflowing with food and drink and riotous partygoers.
There have been far more innocuous gaffs than this in very high profile productions over the years. You can famously spot cars parked in the backgrounds of Ben-Hur, Lord of the Rings, and Braveheart, for example. According to Richter, this particular incident got “so blown out of proportion [because] it has not happened with ‘Thrones’ so far.”
Did you spot this particular snafu while watching? Or maybe you think this is nothing but a storm(born) in a coffee cup?
Last Updated: May 7, 2019
Speen
May 7, 2019 at 11:55
Honestly don’t understand why everyone seems to be super upset with GoT’s Season 8.
HvR
May 7, 2019 at 12:04
People are pissed that their predictions did not happen.
Kervyn Cloete
May 7, 2019 at 12:33
Nah, there have been some legit problems this and last season. I’m still enjoying it quite a bit overall, and I think some of the criticisms is legit a case of people getting upset that the show doesn’t match their head canon, but some stuff are actually dumb. Characters acting completely against what we’ve learned about them, rushed episodes resulting in time jumps that make no sense, some really terrible dialogue, etc.
Guz
May 7, 2019 at 13:04
Ya there have been some really questionable character decisions.
Chris
May 7, 2019 at 15:55
The only thing that has really bothered me is the way Jon has treated Ghost. No goodbye. No “whos a good boy”. No thanks for losing half your ear in battle. Not even a damn pat on the head. Jon just gives him away.
Speen
May 7, 2019 at 16:05
I mean Ghost is a wolf though, not a household dog.
I don’t think wolves are that into petting, and Jon hasn’t ever really been “cuddly” with him as far as I’ve seen.
Chris
May 7, 2019 at 16:26
Ned Stark: “You will train them yourselves, you will feed them yourselves, and if they die, you will bury them yourselves.”
I hear you I did not mean he should cuddle him like a good doggo, I just feel he deserved a better send off after all he has done for Jon.
RinceThis
May 7, 2019 at 19:11
I don’t think John has touched the wold in years. Not to mention he probably thought the wolf was stupid to go into battle where it could do no harm at all.
RinceThis
May 7, 2019 at 19:11
because they are little cry babies and their theories are not correct.
Caveshen Rajman
May 7, 2019 at 10:07
Seeing that cup on set was actually the most consistent part of the season so far.
Gareth Lagesse (eXCheez)
May 7, 2019 at 10:24
His comparative examples don’t hold water (or coffee in this case). Cars driving by in the background aren’t the same as a crew member leaving a cup of coffee on a hot set.
Alien Emperor Trevor
May 7, 2019 at 10:44
He said cars parked, not cars driving by, and cars driving by is arguably worse because that means they didn’t have proper control of the set never mind just forgetting something small.
Gareth Lagesse (eXCheez)
May 7, 2019 at 14:44
Semantics, I guess. The famous goof in Lord of the Rings is a car driving in the
distant background (which was removed for home release), which is what I’m referring to.
Kervyn Cloete
May 7, 2019 at 12:26
Yeah, no cars being driven were mentioned.
For the Emperor!
May 7, 2019 at 10:31
Darn, spoiled the best part of the episode on me 🙂
konfab
May 7, 2019 at 12:11
And I can bet the person who left it there is enjoying the memes whilst being unemployed.
RinceThis
May 7, 2019 at 19:11
yes hahah,. though that said, the directors, editors, light editors, colou reditors etc etc all missed it.