The zombie polar bear on 'Game of Thrones' is a lot sillier when you know it's a man in a green suit
Helen Sloan/HBO
Warning: There are spoilers ahead for "Game of Thrones."
"Game of Thrones" fans were hoping we'd get to see some ice spiders Sunday night, but instead, viewers got a giant undead polar bear that ravaged Thoros of Myr.
HBO
According to the series' showrunners, they've been trying to get that polar bear into the show for years, but were constantly told by the visual effects team that there was no way they could afford to do it.
"What we had to go through to get the zombie polar bear was writing the zombie polar bear into every season of the show for about four seasons," said co-showrunner coshowrunner D.B. Weiss in a behind-the-scenes featurette released by HBO.
However, Weiss said since Jon was going beyond the Wall, it allowed them to bring the bear into the fold. Plus, it probably helped that the entire season is a few episodes shorter than usual to afford adding in a massive undead bear.
How they brought the undead polar bear to life on "Game of Thrones"
An animated pre-visualization is created beforehand to give everyone an idea of what they want the scene to look like.
HBO/YouTube
While a ton of visual effects were used to make the polar bear's final majestic form, a lot of the initial ground work consisted of a man in a green unitard suit.
HBO/YouTube
Since the stuntman wouldn't be big enough on his own to fill in for the bear, he maneuvered a stand-in of the bear's head on set that was actually on fire.
If that wasn't enough, Thoros of Myr actor Paul Kaye was really there fending off the "bear" with his sword.
HBO/YouTube
The stuntman didn't just stand there either. He also chased the cast around on set.
Wires were also used to swing men around to make it look like they were being pulled and dragged by the giant mammal.
HBO/YouTube
Stuntmen were tossed around a lot.
When Jorah went in for the kill, the setup was a little different. The "bear" was nothing more than some sort of makeshift table that was on fire.
HBO/YouTube
As Thoros was being dragged away from the bear, you can see the different stages of what goes into the visual effects process.
HBO/YouTube
Here's how the scene looks before and after visual effects are added:
HBO/YouTube
You can watch the full breakdown of the frozen lake scene from Sunday's episode below:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/yx9dRL1BCCQ
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