In an interview with StarTrek.com, Game of Thrones cast member Alexander Siddig, who played Doran Martell until the Dornish prince was murdered by a woman he should have executed, described his experiences working on the HBO fantasy series. But in between your typical Game of Thrones cast anecdotes about working on set, keeping plot secrets from family and “actors praying they weren’t going to be killed,” Siddig voiced a surprising conspiracy theory. Did HBO leak the first four Game of Thrones Season 5 episodes online on April 11, 2015, the day before the premiere?
Speaking to the secrecy required on TV and film sets to guard against social media, Siddig said, “I think the secrecy is kind of understandable, but also there is an element of hype about it that makes it… the more secretive it is, the more special it is. And certainly Game of Thrones plays that. They misinform the crowd and they give them tidbits to send them in wrong directions. So, for example, last season, I believe that the first few episodes were stolen and downloaded online, and everybody got to see them before the show actually aired and everybody was furious at HBO and whatnot. I don’t know if you remember. I am almost positive that those four episodes were leaked by HBO themselves.”
Siddig made clear that he didn’t have any inside knowledge of the situation, saying, “So there is an enormous amount of spin going on. I can’t tell you that for sure, that’s just my opinion. But it’s games, everybody’s playing these games.”
After the leaks occurred the media was quick to speculate that hackers had been behind the breach (or the Church of Scientology). HBO’s explanation would come two days later:
"Sadly, it seems the leaked four episodes of the upcoming season of Game of Thrones originated from within a group approved by HBO to receive them. We're actively assessing how this breach occurred."
It has since been widely assumed that the leaks were pulled from screeners passed out to critics and industry people, prompting HBO to not send out screeners for Game of Thrones Season 6.
HBO leaking their own episodes would be a far more nefarious conspiracy than your standard PR hijinks. It would make HBO’s efforts to target illegal downloaders a cynical and mean-spirited smokescreen.
Plus, it’s hard to imagine HBO’s motives for leaking the episodes. HBO Now, the streaming service that doesn’t require a separate HBO subscription, debuted days before the leak. Why would a cable company taking a risky dive into streaming compound the uncertainty of the launch by leaking the episodes for free?
To be fair to Siddig, his answer seems more in the spirit of idle speculation than hard assertion, despite his emphaticness. He spent a far greater chunk of the interview offering various theories on why David Benioff and D.B. Weiss decided to kill off Doran Martell (especially since Siddig was contracted for four episodes of Season 6, but died in the premiere). Some of his hypotheses are nearly as interesting as his HBO leaker conspiracy theory. You can read the full interview here.
