Despite the fact that Game of Thrones’ just aired its action-packed third-to-last episode, most of the post-episode discussion has centered around Starbucks Coffee.
WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ‘GAME OF THRONES’ SEASON 8, EPISODE 4 WILL FOLLOW.
In one of the episode’s earliest scenes, as Westeros’ Mightiest Heroes celebrated their victory over the Night King and the Army of the Dead in the Battle of Winterfell, a white Starbucks coffee cup can be seen — plain as day — sitting on a table in front of Daenerys Targaryen.
While the modern day beverage was on the screen for no more than a couple of seconds, the damage was already done, as social media went wild with memes and criticisms about the carelessness that led to a Starbucks cup making its way to Westeros.
However, as the old saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and that’s exactly the case when it comes to HBO and Starbucks.
Following the episode, while the fallout for HBO has consisted of nothing but condemnation, the moment turned out to be quite a lucrative swoop for the Seattle-based coffee powerhouse.
According to MarketWatch, the product placement itself was worth about $250,000 for Starbucks, while the rampant social media discussion in the aftermath is worth about $1 million.
As for how exactly a Starbucks cup made its way into the final cut of the episode, Game of Thrones art director told Variety that it’s not “uncommon for such misplaced elements to mistakenly end up in the final cut of TV shows and movies.”
The final season of HBO’s Emmy Award-winning series ‘Game of Thrones’, which first premiered on Sunday, April 17, 2011, will conclude it’s epic eight-season run on Sunday, May 19, 2019.
That is all the information that is available at this time. This article will be updated with new and relevant information should it become available at any time. If there is anything that we missed, please feel free to send an email to editor@teamcoed.com and we will respond as soon as possible.