Green-screen fingers are the new Starbucks cup of the “Game of Thrones” television universe.
HBO is moving to fix a CGI error in the latest installment of “House of the Dragon” after eagle-eyed viewers spotted what appeared to be a partial green-screen glove on the left hand of King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), the Los Angeles Times confirmed Thursday.
After the third episode of the “Game of Thrones” prequel series premiered on Sunday, Twitter user @SarahC_821 shared a freeze frame of Viserys handing a letter to one of his soldiers. In the scene, two of the king’s fingers are covered in something green, indicating that the visual effects team forgot to edit Considine’s digits in postproduction.
Elsewhere in the episode, the fingers in question appear mangled and partially amputated — a result of Viserys accidentally slicing his hand on the iron throne and letting maggots feast on the wound earlier in the season. At press time, the editing mistake had not yet been corrected on HBO Max.
This isn’t the first time “Game of Thrones” fans have noticed a gaffe onscreen. In the final season of the flagship fantasy epic, a beverage resembling a Starbucks coffee cup was visible on a Winterfell banquet table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). HBO later digitally removed the cup, which stood out like a modern-day sore, ahem, finger in the medieval period drama.
“Our on-set prop people and decorators are so on it 1,000%,” said “Game of Thrones” executive producer Bernie Caulfield, who was quick to defend the production crew amid the Starbucks scandal that spurred countless jokes and memes about Westeros’ coffee industry.
“We’re sorry! Westeros was the first place to actually … have Starbucks, and it’s a little-known fact,” she added.
The coffee-cup blunder also prompted a reaction at the time from longtime “Game of Thrones” art director Hauke Richter, who insisted the mistake was “so blown out of proportion [because] it has not happened with ‘Thrones’ so far.”
The next episode of “House of the Dragon” premieres Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max.