‘Game of Thrones’ Stunt Performer Sues Over Battle of Winterfell Injury (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

K.J. Yossman A stunt performer injured during the production of “Game of Thrones” is suing the series makers.Casey Michaels was working on the eighth and final season of the hit HBO show in February 2018 when she suffered a “serious fracture dislocation to her left ankle,” according to court documents seen by Variety.

She has filed a claim against Fire & Blood Productions, an HBO-owned U.K. subsidiary for “Game of Thrones.”According to the court documents, the claim, which was filed in January 2021, is worth almost $5 million.

If the parties do not settle, the case is likely to be heard before a judge sometime next summer.The injury occurred when Michaels, dressed as a Wight (the zombies controlled by White Walkers that appear in later seasons), was filming a scene in episode 3 in which a large group of Wights climb the castle battlements, clamber onto a sloped roof inside and walk off the edge to continue fighting below.

According to court documents, a group of 28 stunt performers, all dressed as Wights, were instructed to walk off the roof, which was around 12 feet high (possibly lower) “as if unaware of the drop, in keeping with the zombie-like nature of the Wights.” The performers stepped off in groups of four to five, falling onto a box rig below, which was comprised of cardboard boxes and mats.“By their nature, however, the cardboard boxes are not durable and become damaged as each stunt performer lands on the box rig and also as each stunt performer climbs off of the box rig after landing,” Michaels alleges in her claim.In their defense, Fire & Blood Productions deny this, saying the box rig was “durable and was not compressed when a stunt performer stepped off onto the mattress and rolled away.”Michaels, who was.