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  ===Filming===
  "The Dragon and the Wolf" was directed by Jeremy Podeswa. He joined the series as a director in the fifth season, his first episode being "Kill the Boy", which was followed by "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. He further directed two more episodes in the series' sixth season, and also directed the seventh season's premiere episode, "Dragonstone". This would be Podeswa's final episode as a director for the series, as he would later reveal that he would not be returning for the series' final season.
  The Roman amphitheatre at Italica stood in as the dragon pit in King's Landing.
  In an interview with ''Variety'', Podeswa described the tone in filming the scene at the dragon pit as "laden with tension," and that he was very excited to film the sequence due to several characters meeting for the first time and others reuniting after a long absence from each other. According to a separate interview with ''USA Today'', shooting of the dragon pit scene took place over the course of six days, and was first rehearsed in Belfast, and later on set in Spain. The Italica ruins near Seville, Spain stood in for the dragon pit. Podeswa revealed that the sequence was "40 to 50 pages" in the script, which he felt was a lot of material to work with, saying he had to "make sure everything landed," and that "every look in that script and every moment that needed to be there was actually going to end up on screen."
  "The Dragon and the Wolf" marks Aidan Gillen's final appearance as Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish.
  In an interview with ''The Hollywood Reporter'', Podeswa described filming the death of Littlefinger and Aidan Gillen's performance, saying "It was moving and difficult to see somebody get to the end of their role on the show, but it was an amazing scene to go out on. The mood when we were shooting it was incredible, actually. Aidan's performance was so, so passionate, and so surprising in a way." The filming of the scene took place over the course of an entire day, with the conclusion being filmed later, with Podeswa noting, "We didn't really shoot the end until a certain point, and  was very ready at that point."
  Podeswa also described the process behind filming the sexual intimacy between Jon and Daenerys, saying, "In the script, it described the fact that they were love-making, but it didn't go into great detail in terms of what was going on between them as characters in that moment." He went on to state that he "built in a moment between" Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke, who portray Jon and Daenerys respectively, where they "stop for a moment and look into each other's eyes." He continued, "The intention from my point of view, and their point of view too, is that they're driven by passion into this. They don't even fully understand what it's all about and what the consequences of it are. They really can't stop themselves. It's almost destiny that's bringing them together." In regards to the similarity between the appearance of Rhaegar and Viserys Targaryen, Podeswa stated that the brothers were meant to look similar.
  Podeswa's first reaction to the final scene of the episode, with the destruction of a portion of the Wall, was "This is an enormous, spectacular sequence. How are we actually going to pull it off?" In order to piece together the sequence, Podeswa was required to work with several different departments, including Benioff and Weiss, the visual effects department, storyboard artist, the set designers, stuntmen, the cinematographer, and the actors themselves. All of the scenes that were filmed on top of the Wall, with Kristofer Hivju and Richard Dormer as Tormund and Beric respectively, were on an actual set in Belfast, along with filming of the stuntmen falling, which would be later transposed by visual effects. He continued by describing the process of creating the non-practical shots by saying, "All of the more panoramic spectacular shots are visual effects, but they're designed by me working with the visual effects department from storyboards that I created with storyboard artists." There were also several interactive elements involved, which Podeswa noted by saying, "When we were shooting the Wall set, we had the lighting effect on the Wall that was caused by the flame, but we hadn't created the flame yet." He continued by revealing the process that went into Viserion's appearance, saying "Everything comes from a sense of logic, so I guess in this particular instance with Viserion, what were the wounds that he suffered before he died? What happened to him underwater and when he was dragged up? All of those kinds of things folded into the discussion of what he should appear to look like when he's resurrected."