Hardhomeis unlike any other season’s episode 8, and feels much more like the typically cinematic penultimate installments. The episode finds Jon Snow (Harington) attempting to bring the Wildlings hiding out in the eponymous settlement down below the wall to protect them from the White Walkers. Unfortunately, the White Walkers overtake Hardhome at this exact moment, killing thousands and turning them into wights. It’s creepy to say the least.As with most vast Thrones episodes, the exact budget for the episode is a bit of a mystery. But the details surroundingHardhomeprove just how expensive it was to make, as Harington told Entertainment Weekly in May 2015,It was three to four weeks of shooting for a sequence that should add up to [more than] 20 minutes. We shot less than a minute a day! It’s so CGI-heavy it’s unlike anything I’ve ever done on Thrones.If that doesn’t already sound pricey, know Harington shot each of his fight sequences three times — one against a man in a green screen suit, once against a man made up to look dead, and once against nothing but air — just to give the team a variety of options.