The long-running debate over whether Britain should leave the European Union has reached a crescendo in recent weeks, with both sides — the “Remain” camp and the “Leave” camp — making their final arguments this week ahead of Thursday’s Brexit vote.
What neither side has yet accounted for, however, is the impact it could have on Game of Thrones.
According to Foreign Policy magazine, a British departure from the E.U. will see the massively popular HBO fantasy series deprived of a significant amount of funding for shooting on location.
One of the show’s major shooting locations is in Northern Ireland, where last week’s epic ‘Battle of the Bastards’ was filmed. Because it films there, HBO currently benefits from subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund. A Brexit would see Northern Ireland leave the E.U. along with the rest of the U.K., and potentially cut off that source of funding for HBO’s flagship program as well as several British movies and TV shows that have benefitted from it in the recent past, FP reports.
As the proud houses of Westeros continue to ponder their allegiances on screen while, the U.K. considers its own in real life, filmmakers are hoping that Thursday’s vote won’t result in a ‘Wexit.’
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