Game of Thrones Production to Pause for Kit Harington’s Wedding

Production on Game of Thrones season 8 will halt so the cast can attend Kit Harington and Rose Leslie’s wedding, it’s been revealed. The Jon Snow and Ygritte actors announced their engagement last month, and the much-loved couple was in the news again recently, when details of Harington’s April Fool’s Day prank came to light.

The news that Harington and Leslie’s nuptials will necessitate a break in filming is the latest piece of evidence to suggest that Game of Thrones season 8 won’t be ready for broadcast until 2019. Iain Glen already explained that shooting will take longer than usual due to the fact that most of the main players are sharing scenes now – thus making it harder to have multiple units filming different scenes at the same time. Production is starting soon on the new season, and it’s believed that filming will continue until summer 2018.


Harington revealed the fact that filming will stop because of his wedding during an appearance on a British chat show, The Jonathan Ross Show. The actor recalled contacting the producers of Game of Thrones and explaining that he is due to wed to Leslie, whom he met on the set of the show several years prior:

“I rang [the producer] up and I said, ‘I’m getting married and it’s your fault, actually.’ […] I was like, ‘You need to factor in a Game of Thrones wedding by the way. They [the cast and crew] have all got to be there so the whole thing has got to shut down.’”

Clearly, Harington has become a hugely important part of the show, to the point that he can demand a break in filming in order to tie the knot with his former co-star. He and Leslie haven’t publicly announced a date yet, but when they do, the Game of Thrones production team will have to work around it. It’s currently unclear where the wedding will take place, and how long the filming break will have to last for.

Although it is exciting for Thrones fans to see a beloved couple from the show getting married in real life, it is somewhat unfortunate that Harington and Leslie may delay the arrival of season 8 in doing so. Still, the gap between new episodes is already due to be longer than a year, so what difference will a few extra days make? Most fans won’t mind waiting a bit longer for the show’s “monumental” final season.

Game of Thrones has not set its return date yet.

Source: The Jonathan Ross Show [h/t LadBible], Screen Rant