All The Game Of Thrones Stars Are Getting A Raise
Maisie Williams, Kit Harrington, Pedro Pascal and Sophie Turner. Photo: Getty Images.
As filming on season five of Game Of Thrones gets underway in exotic locations like Spain and Romania, the TV show’s biggest stars received good news: they’re getting a raise, The Hollywood Reporter reports.
Using a tiered system, HBO ranked its cast members to determine who earns what. Tier A – or the highest earning group – includes Kit Harrington (Jon Snow), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Nikolai Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister). All the members of the ‘A’ tier negotiated their pay rises together, marking the first time in the history of Westeros that the Starks, Lannisters and Targaryens have joined forces.
To give you an idea of just how much your favourite Game of Thrones star will make after their pay rise, last season both Headey and Dinklage made US$160,000 per episode. That’s a cool US$1.5 million per season. How much more will they be earning after their raises? HBO is yet to release any figures, but The Hollywood Reporter calls the pay rises “huge”.
Tier B – including Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) – also received raises. All cast members inked deals that will see them aligned to the show until season seven.
Many have expressed upset that 17-year old Williams, whose character Arya is a viewer favourite and who also drives most of the action forward in the series, wasn’t earning as much as the ‘A’ tier cast members.
Also, it’s important to note that although all these actors have signed deals until the seventh season, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will make it that far. If Game of Thrones author George R.R Martin – who is currently writing the sixth book at a glacial pace – decides, as he is wont to do, that a much-beloved character would be better off dead, then dead they shall be, leaving their contracts voided.
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