14 DAY TRIAL // The small, sleepy village of Kings Langley in the British countryside is going to be renamed for a week to “Kings Landing,” in honor of the award-winning series “Game of Thrones” and the release of the third season on DVD.
Situated just outside of London, the small village was selected because its original name sounds eerily similar to the capital of Westeros, Kings Landing. The idea for the switch came to one of the producers of the HBO show. She was waiting for a train in Euston station when she heard the name listed as a stop.
The similarities between the two settlements are only in name, because, whereas Kings Landing is the powerful capital of the Seven Kingdoms, Kings Langley is a small village with just 5,000 inhabitants.
The change is only a temporary one, bound to last a week, so as not to make everyone in the village scrambling for new papers, but it will be enough to honor the TV series based on the George R.R. Martin books.
“Game of Thrones” remains one of the most popular TV series in the world, having recently been named the most pirated show in 2013. Enthusiasm for the fourth season, out this year, is already building up and it is only enhanced by such marketing ploys as changing the names of real-life villages, even if it's only for a week.