‘Game of Thrones’ cast didn’t see sun for 3 months while filming battle

The final season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” will feature a major nighttime battle at Winterfell, and the cast involved for that fight scene say it was brutal work.

“There was a group of us that were all involved in some long nights in the cold outside,” actor Daniel Portman (who plays Podrick Payne) told INSIDER during HBO’s red carpet premiere for season eight Wednesday. “It was hard, but it was necessary to capture what we need to. I really think [it’s] going to blow people away.”

Portman said they filmed the sequence primarily at nighttime during winter in Northern Ireland.

“So you’re working all night and then you wake up in the afternoon and it’s dark already,” Portman said. “You’re not really seeing the sun at all for almost three months. It was really hard.”

Helen Sloan/HBO

“At the time, we all were going crazy,” he continued. “We weren’t getting enough vitamin D, we weren’t eating well enough, we were all weird. Nobody could go to the gym or anything — it was odd. But looking back it was strangely a very happy experience.”

Based on the early reports of production, directors, and episode run-times, it looks like this battle will take place at Winterfell on the third episode of the final season.

Read more:Everything we know about the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’

As we saw in the first official trailer, Podrick will be lining up for the fight alongside Brienne of Tarth and the Unsullied soldiers.

“Ah, I think their opinion of him will not change a bit,” Portman said when we asked how fans will feel about Podrick by the end of the series. “I think they’ll still love him, but hopefully they’ll see a little different side of him this year.”

Brienne had been training Podrick to be a better fighter, so Portman’s tease has us optimistic we’ll see Podrick’s upgraded sword-fighting skills in action.

“Game of Thrones” season eight premieres next Sunday, April 14, at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.