HBO channels Game of Thrones turned 15 last month, which understandably made people feel nostalgic, including those who worked on it.
Active Blueskywriter Bryan Cogman reflected on his experience writing the show when it was in its infancy. His first episode was the fourth episode of the first season.Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things,” this weekend is now 15. Back when Thrones first filmed in 2009, it features family trees, characters, and more. The job helped him pitch the season to showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss, who later landed him writing duties in what he thought at the time was just a simple training exercise.
I wasn’t going to get into the whole #GoT15 thing because… well, I don’t work for HBO anymore (haha) but I owe the show and its fans so much that I thought I’d write a little about the first episode I ever wrote – 104: ‘Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things’… which premiered today… (15 years ago)
– Bryan Cogman (@bryancogman.bsky.social) May 8, 2026 at 11:20 am
In a lengthy thread, Cogman discusses the process of filming the episode and one of his favorite moments to visualize. Bran Stark’s dreams. Some may remember Game of Thrones It was HBO’s first foray into genre television, and so the team and network were reluctant to include anything in these fantasy elements. (He even called Thrones “Red” compared to other shows on the network at the time Boardwalk Empire.) Despite “a lot of pressure” to tone it down, he “fuck it, I’ll write anyway” and came up with a version of the dream that was “no”. too fantastic, but enough to see where we’re going.”
At this point in his career, Cogman had no writing experience and hoped to become a staff writer for the show in later seasons. But since Benioff and Weiss were told by HBO to bring in freelancers, they chose him between the original cast that season, George RR Martin, and the long-time cast. Buffy writer Jane Espenson. While extremely grateful to Benioff and Weiss for giving him a chance, Cogman also appreciated HBO’s environment where “creators and execs really feel like they’re collaborating.” Filming the episode was also his unofficial first go as a producer. It was a role Weiss and Benioff wanted for Cogman, and he officially graduated while still writing for future seasons.
Cogman is now a consulting producer Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and considers Thrones his “film school (that) spoiled me for life. I learned everything I know about writing and production from being in his trenches. GoT was very close to not happening in the early days for many reasons. In the end, it was the right people being there to do it, the network taking a chance on us and the material, and the world wanting it. (…) So, Happy Birthday.” Game of Thrones! The dead will never die.”
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