A Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones episode 4 totally distracted from the creators’ cameo

As soon as the credits roll on any given episode of Game of Thrones, fans dive back in to excavate small moments and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details that speak to George R.R. Martin’s grand tapestry of storytelling. Sometimes they pick up on a piece of set dressing that directly recalls the 300th page of A Clash of Kings. Other times they spot a half-drunk tall nonfat latte with caramel drizzle just sitting there on a banquet table in Winterfell.

Though Game of Thrones season 8’s fourth episode, “The Last of the Starks,” was filled with fan service and shocking deaths, the big takeaway the next morning is that someone forgot to yank a Starbucks cup off set before cameras started rolling. Around the 17:40 mark, future IMDb goof page contributors spotted the white cup with the signature green logo.

HBO

Did the cup go overlooked during a rushed post-production schedule? Was this a “shoot the rehearsal” goof, with footage inserted into the episode that was never meant to be seen? We may never know, and if the cars that popped up in final cuts of Lord of the Rings are any indication, a quick CG fix could erase the prop error for all eternity.

“Things can get forgotten on set,” Hauke Richter, an art director on Thrones season 8, wrote to Variety after the incident, adding that the conversation was “so blown out of proportion [because] it has not happened with Thrones so far.”

Fair on all accounts. People went to town after spotting the cup in the scene.

With all the hoopla surrounding the coffee cup incident, most viewers actually missed the intentionally hidden moment in the post-Battle of Winterfell celebration. As Tormund tells the tale of Jon’s dragon flight — and his I-thought-we-weren’t-talking-about-this-but-I-guess-we’re-talking-about-this return from the dead — two wildlings stand nearby, applauding when told. Under those scraggly beards are none other than series creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff.

HBO

No, Weiss is not holding a coffee cup. In the world of Game of Thrones, wildlings drink their tall nonfat lattes with caramel drizzle in a giant horn.