--- title: Game of Thrones Creators Talk Original Disaster Pilot description: According to showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff, the unaired pilot was a catastrophe. canonical: https://time.com/4206627/game-of-thrones-creators-talk-original-disaster-pilot/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-03T20:47:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:44.327Z og:title: Here's What the Game of Thrones Creators Had to Say About Why the Original Pilot Was a Disaster og:description: "You guys have a massive problem" og:url: https://time.com/4206627/game-of-thrones-creators-talk-original-disaster-pilot/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt453b49e1a1a35296/6988637a428a9efd39ccf18f/daenerys-game-of-thrones-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Game-of-Thrones-S1-E10 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What the Game of Thrones Creators Had to Say About Why the Original Pilot Was a Disaster twitter:description: "You guys have a massive problem" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt453b49e1a1a35296/6988637a428a9efd39ccf18f/daenerys-game-of-thrones-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What the _Game of Thrones_ Creators Had to Say About Why the Original Pilot Was a Disaster > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Teaser Trailer [Watch (HLS stream): 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Teaser Trailer](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/H5MtCj78.m3u8) (0:41)  _Published 2015-12-03. 'Game of Thrones' Season 6 Teaser Trailer_  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 3, 2016 8:47 PM UTC  HBO  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Feb 3, 2016 8:47 PM UTC [_Game of Thrones_](http://time.com/4196104/kit-harington-jon-snow-dead-alive-game-of-thrones/) may be [one of the most popular shows](http://time.com/4172317/game-of-thrones-season-6-premiere-date-revealed/) on television today, but according to showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff, the unaired pilot was a catastrophe. The pair appeared on the latest episode of the podcast [_Scriptnotes_](http://johnaugust.com/scriptnotes), hosted by John August and Craig Mazin, and spoke about how they turned things around after their original failure. As it turns out, Mazin, who is a personal friend of the _GOT_ creators, was one of the few people who actually saw the rejected premiere. He and a few others were asked to watch the episode and then give their input on it. “Watching them watch that original pilot was one of the most painful experiences of my life,” Weiss said. “As soon as it finished, Craig \[Mazin\] said, ‘You guys have a massive problem.'” The pilot apparently had a slew of problems, but according to Benioff, one issue in particular stood out. “None of (our friends) realized that [Jaime and Cersei](http://time.com/4193826/lena-headey-bachelor-insults/) were brother and sister, which is a major, major plot point that we had somehow failed to establish,” he said. **Read More:** [_Game of Thrones_ Actor Reveals a Pivotal Death Scene Was Cut From the Pilot](http://time.com/4196050/game-of-thrones-scene-cut/) After replacing the actress who played Catelyn Stark, hiring a new director and re-shooting about 90 percent of the footage, a new version of the first episode — the one that fans now know and love — was ready to air. “I will never forget being invited to the premiere of the first season,” Mazin said. “I went in just thinking (skeptically), ‘Well, I guess we’ll just see how this goes.’ I sat there and this show unfolds and I am stunned. _Stunned_. And I very specifically remember walking out and I said to \[Weiss and Benioff\], ‘That is the biggest rescue in Hollywood history.’ Because it wasn’t just that they had saved something bad and turned it really good. You had saved a complete piece of sh\*t and turned it into something brilliant. 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