The cast of Game of Thrones at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall was filled to the rafters with an exuberant audience for the premiere of Season 8 of HBO’s vaunted Game of Thrones – the highly-anticipated final season of a series destined to go down in the history books as one of the greatest television shows of all time.
In addition to the actors who have thus far survived in their quest of pursuing the Iron Throne – including Emilia Clark, Kit Harington, Maisie Williams, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, Gwendolyn Christie, John Bradley, Nathalie Emmanuel and Isaac Hempstead – a number of dearly departed cast members also showed up for the much-anticipated April 3 event.
Rose Leslie and Kit Harington at Game of Thrones premiere
Among them, Sean Bean, whose Eddard (Ned) Stark was shockingly decapitated at the end of the first season. Also attending were Rose Leslie, Charles Dance, Jason Momoa, Pedro Pascal, Aidan Gillen, Liam Cunningham, Jack Gleeson, Conleth Hill, Jacob Anderson, Jerome Flynn, Iain Glen, Carice van Houten, Joe Dempsie, Hannah Murray, Indira Varma, Kristofer Hivju, Hafbor Julius Bjornsson and Natalie Dormer.
HBO entertainment chief Casey Bloys introduced showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, who spoke humorously about the beginnings of the show a decade ago before the curtains opened to reveal all of the cast members who were on hand.
After being sworn to secrecy about what transpired in the first episode—they were handed buttons that read “Keep the Secrets”– guests headed to celebrate at the nearby Ziegfeld Ballroom.
The Game of Thrones premiere afterparty
The space had been transformed into a GoT dreamscape complete with fountains of fire, specialty cocktails made with Johnnie Walker’s new limited edition White Walker and an Urban Decay cosmetics booth featuring lipsticks named after Queen Cersei Lannister, (Lena Headey– who sadly could not attend due to illness) Sansa Stark, Daenerys Targaryen and the White Walkers.
The party rocked late into the evening, until the cast members departed for a private after-afterparty at the Mandarin Oriental, where only they knew who eventually ruled the Seven Kingdoms.
