Production
Writing
"What Is Dead May Never Die" was written by the story editor Bryan Cogman, based on George R. R. Martin's original book A Clash of Kings. Cogman, who is responsible for keeping the show's bible and had already written the first season's fourth episode, was on set for the filming of all the scenes of his episode.[2]
The chapters of the book included in the episode are Arya IV, Tyrion IV, Arya V, Catelyn II, Tyrion VI, Bran IV, (chapters 15, 18, 20, 23, 26 and 29) and also the parts of Tyrion I, Tyrion II, Tyrion V, Jon III and Theon II that had not been included in the previous episode (4, 9, 21, 24 and 25).[3]
"The 'burning the letter' scene was interesting—it wasn't in our outline. (...) But there was something missing—and ultimately, it had to come back to Robb. In our version of the story, Theon is very close to him—he's the brother he never had. And I wanted to take him right up to the point of betraying his own blood—so that's where the warning to Robb scene came from. And at first, it was more elaborate—he was going to write it, take it to a rookery, nearly give it to a maester—(...). It was going to be more of scene/scene. But it never worked, so we just went with the simple act...
Now it helped that Alfie is so bloody fantastic in the scene and that Alik Sakharov directed it as if he was directed a huge setpiece—meaning he gave it the same time and attention as a 'big' scene. He did take after take after take with Alfie trying it all kinds of different ways—perfection."
— Bryan Cogman, interviewed by Westeros.org[2]
The scenes set in the Iron Islands were created specifically for the show, as the books jump directly from Balon's revelation that he intends to attack the North to Theon overseeing the preparations of the attack. To flesh out the transition and flesh out Theon's feelings on his change of loyalties, Bryan Cogman included a scene of Theon writing a letter to Robb only to burn it afterwards, and the ritual baptism on the shores of Pyke. Cogman noted that, while those scenes have nearly no dialogue, they are the ones he's most proud of in his episode.
Another scene created for the show was the dinner between Cersei and the children. The scene was included to remind the audience who Myrcella was, since her potential marriages were discussed in the episode. Aimee Richardson, the actor playing Myrcella (who has appeared in many past episodes as a background character), sent a note to Cogman thanking him for her "lines" in this scene.
The final scene also had to be redesigned in relation to the books, due to the constraints imposed by the location, the schedule, and the time restrictions for the child actors. Cogman's first draft was more similar to the books, with Arya, Gendry, Lommy, and Hot Pie first fleeing and then being captured, but finally it was decided to combine both scenes. Cogman was also dismayed that he had to cut one of his favourite scenes in the books: Arya and Hot Pie charging while shouting the battle cries "Winterfell" and "Hot Pie."[2]
In the audio commentary for this episode, included on the DVD and Blu-ray editions of Season 2, Cogman revealed that his initial script was over three hours long and had to be cut significantly (for example, Cogman mentioned that before the cuts he had included a long, drawn out fight scene between Jon and Craster, which was changed at the suggestion of director Alik Sakharov to a shot of Craster dragging Jon back to his keep). Cogman revealed that the sequences between Tyrion and Pycelle, Varys, Littlefinger, and Cersei were among his favorites.
Casting
This episode marks the first appearance of two new characters: Lady Margaery Tyrell, the new queen of King Renly Baratheon and sister of his lover, Loras Tyrell; and Brienne of Tarth, a member of Renly's guard.
Natalie Dormer was cast as Margaery; her character was aged in relation to the book's counterpart (Dormer was 29 during the filming of season 2, while the Margaery from the books was 15), and her role was significantly expanded from a background, though important, character in the novels to a main character in the show. Dormer was also added to the series' main cast.[4] Margaery is the youngest member of the Tyrell family in the novels, but as Dormer is six years older than Finn Jones, who plays Loras, Margaery is older than Loras in the show.
For the role of Brienne the producers chose the English actress Gwendoline Christie. According to the character's creator George R. R. Martin, when he saw the first batch of auditions he saw "a dozen actresses who were reading for Brienne and one actress who was Brienne," and it was one of the cases when there wasn't any debate.[5] Due to her outstanding height (6 ft 3 in, 1.91 m) she was earmarked early on by fans of the books as a good fit for the character, and one of them even emailed her agent. Christie already knew about the role and felt that she could relate to the character after having been bullied for her height and androgynous looks. After deciding to "go all out for it," she read the books, started building up with cardio-vascular exercises and kickboxing practices, and even started to wear unisex clothing in order to increase her own masculinity. After she had been cast, she continued to train and received extensive sword fighting and horse-riding lessons. Her last step in the process of transformation was cutting off her long hair, which she found deeply upsetting because she felt it was her last bond to her old self. The day after her hair was cut off, she went to her hotel room and cried.[6]
Filming locations
To reproduce Renly's camp, the production built a set at Larrybane chalk quarry beside Carrick-a-Rede.
On September 12, 2011, while filming was taking place in Renly's camp, the high winds caused by Hurricane Katia destroyed a steel-framed marquee and five extras received minor injuries.[7] Furthermore, the extreme weather conditions made some of the footage unusable, and they had to rebuild the set in October to reshoot some scenes. Among the scenes that had to be repeated there was the duel between Brienne and Loras and Catelyn's arrival.[8]
In the audio commentary for the episode, Bryan Cogman revealed that only 200 extras were used in scenes in Renly's camp, though there appeared to be many more.
