Game of Thrones fans scouring the show’s new opening credits sequence for clues might have noticed a pair of familiar names with some fancy new titles in this final season. Miguel Sapochnik and David Nutter—who, along with show-runners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, are the only people directing episodes for the final season of Game of Thrones—have also landed themselves shiny executive-producer credits.
Upgrades like these are not at all common practice for Thrones—but they may be part of a larger reward for longtime loyalty within the Thrones operation. Nutter, who directed last night’s premiere (as well as two more installments of the six-episode final season), particularly considers his Thrones co-workers to be family, and got emotional talking about his return to the show after a long absence.
Though Sapochnik has earned a reputation among Thrones fans as the show’s go-to battle director, Nutter is actually the guy who has directed the episodes with some of the most significant deaths: “The Rains of Castamere” (a.k.a. the Red Wedding), “The Dance of Dragons” (when Shireen burns), and “Mother’s Mercy” (in which Jon Snow dies). When Nutter met Barack Obama after Jon Snow kicked the bucket in Season 5, the president jokingly told him: “You kill all my favorite characters.”
But Nutter himself was taken out of commission after Season 5 by a major injury that required several back surgeries. He had to skip Season 6—and then, still not fully healed, Season 7, too. On a recent episode of Vanity Fair’s Still Watching podcast, Nutter said that being asked to direct half of the episodes of the final season felt like “when you’re in the ocean and you can’t swim and someone throws you a life jacket. After being out of commission for a couple years, it was fantastic to get a chance to work with people I care so much about.”
Nutter was originally slated to return in Season 7 to direct the showstopper “The Spoils of War,” but wasn’t fully healed in time. (That would explain why Matt Shakman—who had previously mostly directed TV comedies—ended up being tapped instead.) But even though Nutter couldn’t direct the Season 7 episode himself, he still insisted on visiting the set. When holiday travel plans took him to Europe, he told his wife: “If we’re going to see your family in Austria for Christmas, I want to see mine in Spain.” And that Thrones family welcomed Nutter back with open arms for the final season, in what the director described as a true homecoming. “They gave me a lot of strength to come back,” he said.
In addition to a new executive-producer credit, Nutter also got another experience he had never had before on Thrones. Because he usually directed season finales, Nutter’s episodes had never been given the big, splashy premiere treatment. But Season 8, Episode 1, “Winterfell,” debuted to a packed crowd of thousands at Radio City Music Hall earlier this month—and Nutter was given the chance to hear the crowd roar in appreciation for his first episode back after years on the bench.
Nutter has had a fairly rough time in hiss personal life; before Christmas, his wife was also diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. Because she had been doing better, Nutter said, he was looking forward to attending the premiere with his family. And knowing how Weiss, Benioff, and the rest of the Thrones team think of him, Nutter likely meant “family” in more ways than one.
More Great Game of Thrones Stories from Vanity Fair
— It’s catch-up time: everything you need to know about Seasons 5, 6, and 7
— About that new Season 8 footage!
— The 15 most essential episodes to re-watch
— The best weaponry for a Thrones battle
