The company that supplied the modern coffee cup that appeared in the final season of Game of Thrones has spoken out for the first time.
The last season of Game of Thrones became infamous for many reasons, not least when a “Starbucks” cup appeared in a scene of the fourth episode of Season 8. While fans found many story-related reasons to hate the finale of the hit HBO show, they saw a modern coffee cup appear in one scene it didn’t help raise opinions about the entire seasons as a huge disappointment with less than perfect execution. Although the style of the cup immediately referred to it as a Starbucks cup, the actual company that supplied the cup has finally broken their silence on the incident after three years.
The episode in question originally aired on HBO in May 2019, but it wasn’t until a recent interview that Established Coffee owner Mark Ashbridge revealed that despite the cup being called a Starbucks cup on social media and in news reports, it actually originated in their Belfast store, which Ashbridge says has resulted in the company missing out on millions in free PR. Speak with AdweekAshbridge said:
“It was such a disappointment that Starbucks was the immediate one” [assumption]. Like, who on earth first said that? There was no recognizable logo anywhere. The actual scene was filmed months and months before it ever made it onto a TV screen, so you couldn’t tell someone was there when that happened yesterday.”
House of the Dragon redeemed the Game of Thrones franchise
Despite the bitter disappointment, many fans are still feeling towards the final season of Game of Thronesto the point that multiple petitions have been filed demanding that HBO remake the final season, spin-off prequel series House of the Dragon has messed up the franchise again. So far only minor VFX errors have crept in House of the Dragon, which have subsequently been corrected for future streaming. although House of the Dragon is not expected to run as many seasons as its predecessor, there will clearly be hope that it will not succumb to the same finals problems that Game of Thrones.
While any fictional work is prone to human error and some less than convincing special effects, there will be plenty of people keeping an eye out House of the Dragon to try and make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible and that there are no glaring and avoidable mistakes when the series returns for its second season. As for the infamous Game of Thrones paper cup, the scene may have been edited so that the offending item is no longer visible to future audiences, but the memory will live on for fans who were there when the episode originally aired. At least now the origin of the cup is known and people can no longer refer to it as “the Starbucks cup.”
House of the DragonThe season one finale airs Sunday on HBO, though the episode has already leaked online. In the meantime, Game of Thrones can also be viewed on HBO Max.