Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Game of Thrones season 7: Actors 'set to earn £2million per episode', making them highest-paid ever

HBO has upped the budget for the shorter but higher quality new season

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 25 April 2017 03:34 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Game of Thrones season 7's top five actors are reportedly being paid up to £2 million per episode, which would make them the highest-paid actors in television history, eclipsing the stars of Friends and The Big Bang Theory.

The new contracts involve complex bonus clauses based on shared percentages of syndication payments accrued from over 170 countries, according to the Express.

Everything about the new season is big budget, with HBO spending $10 million on each episode, according to Forbes - up from $6 million an episode in season 6.

Excitingly, this increase will, in part, help the creators' stage battle scenes on a scale we've never seen before.

"We’ve always wanted to get to a place - story-wise and budget-wise and time-wise and resource-wise - where we would be able to do a proper battle, with one army on one side, one army on another side," co-showrunner D.B. Weiss told Entertainment Weekly recently.

Game of Thrones season 7 arrives on HBO and Sky Atlantic on 25 June, 2017.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in