Jason Momoa’s Khal Drogo was an impactful, but unfortunately short-lived, Game of Thrones character. He is most likely to be one of only two characters that Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) loves and trusts during the course of the whole series – the other being Jon Snow. Like most of the characters, he meets a tragic end, but not before enacting some violence and revenge on others.
Momoa apparently holds the claim for being the first person to persuade Game of Thrones showrunners Benioff and Weiss to include a scene that was not in the books. And this was a fight scene for Drogo. In 2019, Momoa told Entertainment Weekly how the scene came about; “I’m doing that scene where I cut the guy’s throat and I pull the guy’s tongue out.”
“My daughter was with me on set. I love taking [my kids] everywhere, but I’m covered in blood, and she’s sitting there knitting with the wardrobe department. She’s so cute. I’m like, ‘Hi, baby!’ Then I’d go and be like, ‘Raaa!’ She was, like, 4 years old. ‘Papa’s just playing’ – not fazed by it at all. It was a very memorable moment.”
Momoa continued; “I called up Dan and David. I think it was one of the first scenes that was never in the book, and George called me out on it, I think while we were doing the [Comic-Con] panel. I always wanted to see [Drogo] go to battle. I didn’t want to do some elaborate fight scene. I think it’s [just as] intimidating to whisper in someone’s ear and go, ‘Stop that.’ You can just parry; I don’t need to do any fight moves. Then you just take the guy’s sword and slice his throat out.”
Momoa concluded that he wanted to keep a bizarre memento from the fantasy series; “I was like, ‘We can get a chicken breast, and we’ll just cover my hand in blood, and that’ll do it.’ And then within days they had this f-ing throat and tongue attachment, and it looked amazing. I’m a big fan of taking the things that I worked with. So I have the souvenir of the tongue and the throat. That’s just on my desk.”
For more mighty battle scenes, check out our guide to the best war movies and best action movies.