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  ===Filming===
  Sean Bean portrays Ned Stark in the series.
  Tom McCarthy was chosen to direct the pilot episode, shot between October 24 and November 19, 2009 on location in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Morocco. However, the pilot was deemed unsatisfactory and had to be reshot.
  The new pilot episode was filmed in 2010 by new director Tim Van Patten, and several actors appearing in the original pilot did not return for the series. Tamzin Merchant was replaced as Daenerys Targaryen by Emilia Clarke, and Jennifer Ehle was replaced as Catelyn Stark by Michelle Fairley. Additionally, Ian McNeice was replaced as Magister Illyrio by Roger Allam, Richard Ridings as Gared by Dermot Keaney, and Jamie Campbell Bower as Ser Waymar Royce by Rob Ostlere.
  Another difference is that the original pilot featured scenes shot in Scotland and scenes in Pentos were shot in Morocco, but in the aired series, Winterfell was filmed in a combination of locations in Northern Ireland, while scenes from Pentos were from Malta. The Doune Castle in Scotland was originally used to recreate Winterfell, and its great hall was used for some interior shots. Some scenes survived, but as it was not practical to return to Scotland for the reshoot, an exact replica of Doune's great hall was recreated in the soundstage in Belfast for the series. Castle Ward in Northern Ireland was used in the reshoot to film King Robert's entourage entry into Winterfell castle. A car park stood in for the Winterfell castle's courtyard and a wine cellar for the Stark family crypt. The Tollymore Forest Park was used for the opening scene of the encounter with the White Walkers.
  All the scenes shot in Morocco were reshot in Malta. The original pilot reused the sets of ''Kingdom of Heaven'' in Morocco to stand in for Pentos and the site of Drogo and Daenerys's wedding. In Malta, the Verdala Palace, the 16th century summer palace of the president of Malta, was used for the exterior scenes at Illyrio's mansion. The Azure Window was used as the backdrop for the wedding. Filming at the Azure Window, however, caused some controversy when a protected ecosystem was damaged by a subcontractor.
  In the sex scene, the then-pregnant Lena Headey was substituted by a body double; the production hid her pregnancy for the rest of the season. In the scene in which the Starks encounter a stag killed by a dire wolf as they return from the execution, an actual animal was used rather than a prop. As the stag had been dead for two days, it stank so much that the actors had to take much care not to let it show on their faces. Some scenes filmed were never aired, for example a flashback to the death of Eddard Stark's brother, and the death of Jon Arryn.