Game of Thrones has officially announced which directors will be returning (or joining) the show for Season 7—and Miguel Sapochnik, the popular director of “Hardhome,” “Battle of the Bastards,” and last weekend’s barn burner of a finale, isn’t on the list. For the third season in a row, there will be no women either in the director’s chair or in the writers’ room as well.
Given the very likely (though not yet officially confirmed) shorter episode count for Season 7, there will only be four directors on board next year. Entertainment Weekly reports that Jeremy Podeswa will be coming back, something the director himself heavily implied earlier this week. Podeswa has remained a key player on the show even after the controversy surrounding his Season 5 episode, “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” a.k.a. Sansa’s No Good Very Bad Wedding Night. He also helmed both this year’s premiere and the follow-up episode, “Home,” and will return, presumably, to tackle two more episodes next year.
Mark Mylod is also a somewhat controversial choice when it comes to returning Game of Thrones directors. Like Podeswa, he’s directed four episodes over the past two yearsone of which, “No One,” was considered by some to be a low point of Season 6. Mylod will probably head up two episodes next year.
Also returning to the Game of Thrones fold is Alan Taylor, who directed a whopping six episodes during the first two seasons of the show. Taylor took a lengthy break from Thrones to try his hand at feature film making with Thor: The Dark World and Terminator: Genisys, neither of which earned him the kinds of accolades he enjoyed while working on the HBO series. Taylor previously directed one of the most defining episodes in Thrones history: “Baelor.” He’ll likely direct two episodes of Season 7.
And then there’s the newcomer: Matt Shakman. If there are, indeed, seven episodes next year, it’s a safe bet that this will be the director who only helms one. Shakman has a personal connection to series show-runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss—he directed 39 episodes of one of their favorite shows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. But Shakman isn’t just a comedy guy; he’s also directed several episodes of The Good Wife and the stunning, moody Season 1 finale of FX’s Fargo. But given that Shakman, much more so than the other three, does have a background in comedy, there’s real potential to expand on the great situational humor of Sam and Gilly in the Citadel library. We all know Game of Thrones could use a lighter touch every now and then.
There’s a theory (or wishful thinking) among Game of Thrones fans that some of the show's more popular directors, including Sapochnik, Jack Bender (“The Door”) and Michelle MacLaren (“The Bear and the Maiden Fair,” many of your favorite episodes of Breaking Bad), are being saved for the show’s eighth and final season. But there’s also the question of timing. Even if they were offered a shot at Season 7, both MacLaren and Bender are quite busy with projects of their own. MacLaren is shooting the pilot of David Simon’s new series, The Deuce, for HBO, while Bender is directing all of Mr. Mercedes (a Stephen King adaptation) for David E. Kelley. The latter just tragically lost its star, Anton Yelchin, which will throw the production into some degree of chaos.
Speaking with Vanity Fair earlier this month, Bender cited Mr. Mercedes as the reason he likely wouldn’t be returning to Thrones. He also outlined the massive time commitment it takes to make Game of Thrones:
As for Sapochnik, he’ll direct recent Game of Thrones alum Finn Jones in Marvel’s Iron Fist for Netflix and take on his first feature film since 2010: the sci-fi movie Bios. Fingers crossed he’ll clear his schedule of all other commitments in time for Season 8. We can think of no better director to helm the great war to come between the Starks, Targaryens, White Walkers, dragons, and more.
