Up to now we have confirmation that DoP Fabian Wagner will be part of the team in season 8, but still nothing about the other two. It seems highly probable that for the final season HBO will chose DoPs which have lots of experience with GoT, and have either worked closely with the S08 directors before, or worked recently (S07) for the show.
Let's take a closer look at the candidates:
- Miguel Sapochnik: From Fabian Wagner's Instagram post we know he will be back in the team, together with Sapochnik. Which could be expected, because Wagner shot *all four episodes* Sapochnik directed up to now, and he worked for the show during the last 4 seasons (in S07 he did some additional photography only).
- David Nutter: When it comes to Nutter, there is a very high probability that his director of photography in S08 will be Robert McLachlan. McLachlan shot 4 of the 6 episodes Nutter directed (during seasons 3 and 5), and he recently did the two Matt Shakman episodes in S07. So he both worked a lot with David Nutter and shot recently for the show.
- David Benioff & D. B. Weiss: The last one is also the hardest one: who might be the DoP for the final episode directed by Benioff and Weiss? As they only directed two episodes before (in S03 and S04), using two different DoPs, there is no clear precedent. Probably they will either use one of those two DoPs, or one who worked for GoT very recently:
- Of the two DoPs they have worked with before, I guess Matthew Jensen
(though he now has a name as DoP of "Wonder Woman") is rather an improbable choice: his cooperation
with D & D back in S03 was his only contribution to GoT ever. Jonathan Freeman
on the other hand has shot a total of 8 episodes for GoT; after 401
with Benioff & Weiss he shot 605 and 606 with Jack Bender, and 706
with Alan Taylor.
- Of the S07 DoPs, we already have McLachlan and Wagner included in our list, and Gregory Middleton told us he won't be in S08 - which only leaves us with P. J. Dillon. He shot 5 episodes alltogether, four of them being the Mark Mylod episodes in S06 and S07.
So probably it will be one of those two - Freeman or Dillon. My bet is on Freeman, because he has more GoT experience and D & D worked with him before on their S04 episode. - Of the two DoPs they have worked with before, I guess Matthew Jensen
(though he now has a name as DoP of "Wonder Woman") is rather an improbable choice: his cooperation
with D & D back in S03 was his only contribution to GoT ever. Jonathan Freeman
on the other hand has shot a total of 8 episodes for GoT; after 401
with Benioff & Weiss he shot 605 and 606 with Jack Bender, and 706
with Alan Taylor.
TL;DR: These will probably be the director / cinematographer pairings for season 8:
- Miguel Sapochnik / Fabian Wagner
- David Nutter / Robert McLachlan
- David Benioff & D. B. Weiss / Jonathan Freeman (or, maybe P. J. Dillon)
