Fans of HBO's much-hyped Game of Thrones are getting amped up for the newest season's premiere on July 16. While the show packs plenty of star power, the real punch comes from one of the most talented special effects teams in the history of television. So it's pretty neat to get a peek at how it all comes together in this BTS video from the network.


Several plot points will likely come to a head this season, the seventh and penultimate of the series. As the creators wrap up all the loose ends, we're sure to see some astonishing VFX work throughout the large scale battles that have just been getting more and more technically complex as the show moves along.

"Special effects as a department brings the chaos and mayhem," Special Effects Supervisor Sam Conway explains through a thick brogue in the video above. "If you get given a task and they tell you the end image that they want to see, it’s our job to work out how we get there."

For Game of Thrones, the special effects department take on a lot: "We handle gas, we handle water, we handle wind, we handle smoke, we handle pyrotechnics, we handle engineering, blood, snot," Conway continues. Working on the show would truly be the holy grail for a special effects technician.