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  ===Filming===
  "Eastwatch" was directed by Matt Shakman, who also directed the previous episode, "The Spoils of War". Prior to joining the series, Shakman served as a television director for several other series, including ''Fargo'', ''The Good Wife'', ''Mad Men'', and ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''. In an interview with ''The Hollywood Reporter'' following the airing of "Eastwatch", Shakman described shooting his two episodes (the other being "The Spoils of War") for the season: "There isn't the same massive set piece, so it's really about establishing what's coming next for the season. It's a bit of a reset. There are some major character revelations and further development of relationships, especially the people who are reunited and are now seeing what's happening as they navigate their new relationships with the people they haven't seen in so long." At the beginning of the episode, Tyrion Lannister is shown walking through the aftermath of the "Loot Train Attack," which Shakman noted was intended to show Tyrion's internal conflict between serving Daenerys and seeing his own family's dead soldiers. He also stated about the scene, "We created things for him to look at that were evoking Pompeii, the aftermath of the dragon fire and what it does to the humans all around him, as well as the destruction of the actual wagons. We walked Peter through that, and let him react to what he was seeing. The effect is pretty powerful."
  For Daenerys Targaryen's return to Dragonstone, and the interaction between Drogon and Jon Snow, Shakman spoke about the process that went into creating the scene, saying that "half the time Kit Harington", who portrays Jon Snow, was "acting with a partial dragon snout", and at other times "nothing, or a tennis ball in order to establish a proper eye-line." A "pre-viz" was also created, "in order for Harington to see a visualization of what the scene would look like after post-production was completed and to understand the enormity of Drogon." He continued, "It's tremendous acting, to be able to invent your scene partner, and to be able to navigate a scene like that. Bravo to Kit Harington."
  Shakman also talked about directing Harington and Emilia Clarke, who portrays Daenerys, saying: "Even though they haven't interacted much on the show at all, except for this season,  know each other very well. So there's a familiarity there that helps them as actors. They both have great respect for each other and are both very talented, so the scenes are relatively easy to craft due to the familiarity between them that works."
  Shakman also spoke about the direction for the scene between Samwell Tarly and Gilly at the Citadel, noting that despite the importance of the information that Gilly was revealing regarding Rhaegar Targaryen, his intent was to focus primarily on John Bradley as Sam, saying, "I knew the information was huge, and there's no need to underline it at all. I put all of that information off-camera and pushed in on John Bradley as he was dealing with the crisis of the moment, which was his frustration with the maesters and ultimately coming to the conclusion that he doesn't want to be a part of it anymore. The fact that it happens to be dropping a giant piece of information about Jon's lineage and his claim to the throne, I felt it was better to have that happen without any kind of underlining." He also disclosed that the effect of this reveal will be felt in future episodes as Daenerys and Jon's relationship changes.
  Additionally, "Shakman revealed that the meeting of characters at the Eastwatch ice cells at the end of the episode was shot all in one day, and that he hoped to have had more time to shoot the scene." He complimented the actors for their performances, however, saying: "there's just so much tension happening with everybody, and we're setting up this idea that this is a group of very unlikely comrades heading out to perform an impossible task. All of those actors are fantastic. Building the tension between each of them wasn't that difficult, given how smart they all are as performers." For the closing shot of the episode, Shakman attempted to pay homage to director Sam Peckinpah, specifically by referencing the 1969 film ''The Wild Bunch'', for which Peckinpah wrote the screenplay and directed. He noted the scene was "meant to evoke that image of the Wild Bunch walking into town before the big shoot-'em-up begins."