‘Game Of Thrones’ Has A Royal Fan: Queen Elizabeth II [Video]

Game of Thrones has set viewer records with its huge, cult following, and apparently has fans in very high places: thrones, to be exact. It seems Queen Elizabeth II is a fan of the HBO series, mentioning her tour of the set in her annual Christmas speech and setting Twitter on fire.

Many expressed that they had always thought the Queen was a secret Game of Thrones fan, while others suggested perhaps one of the princes dared the royal matriarch to name drop the popular series.

James Martin tweeted, “After the Game of Thrones mention, the Queen will later reveal how she’s asked Philip if she can ‘have a crack on Tinder.'”

But the burning question no one asked — and really should have — was would Queen Elizabeth II consider Game of Thrones a drama, or reality TV?

Some fans expressed disbelief that the Queen actually visited the set, but the HBO YouTube channel has the proof. For once, the stars of Game of Thrones were the ones who were starstruck rather than the objects of adoration. Rose Leslie, who plays Ygritte, said her knees were shaking when Queen Elizabeth II approached her on the set.

Lena Headey, who plays Queen Cersei, found herself far more intimidated meeting the Queen than her character would have been. Headey said she “got very overwhelmed when she appeared.”

See the Queen’s visit to the Game of Thrones set in the video below.

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, like Queen Elizabeth, HBO recently released a year-end video summing up 2014, and giving brief glimpses of what’s to come in 2015. Game of Thrones had only four seconds of new footage in the clip, yet fans are still scrambling to watch those tiny teaser crumbs thrown to them by the network.

Many year-end lists are citing Game of Thrones as one of the best shows of the year, but the series also made a list that won’t make HBO very happy: the show was named as one of the most pirated shows of 2014. In fact, the bloody drama has been crowned the most downloaded show for the third year in a row. With over eight million downloads, Game of Thrones had more pirated downloads than Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead combined.

One can only hope the royal household wasn’t one of the pirating downloaders.

What did you think of Queen Elizabeth’s speech and her reference to Game of Thrones? Is the Queen trying to appeal to a younger generation, or does she just love a bloody good drama?

[Queen Elizabeth II photo courtesy of Wikipedia public domain, Lena Headey photo courtesy of HBO]