The countdown to Game of Thrones’ final season is officially on. While we’ve known for a while now that the show will return in April, HBO has finally promised to reveal an exact premiere date tomorrow, on Sunday the 13th. According to HBO’s official Twitter account, the announcement will be made before the premiere of True Detective’s third season. So tune in for True Detective tomorrow, and get your calendars ready!
With less than four months to go until the show’s premiere, HBO has not revealed much about Season Eight of Game of Thrones. A trailer has yet to be released, but earlier this week fans finally got some new footage of the upcoming season to salivate over.
In a new clip promoting the wealth of HBO’s 2019 programming, we got our first glimpse of Daenery’s triumphant arrival at Winterfell. We know from earlier reports that this is to be the opening scene for Season Eight, and it will largely mirror Robert Baratheon’s visit to Winterfell in Season One.
As Daenerys saunters smugly into the Stark’s family home, Sansa greets her graciously, if not warmly while Jon looks on. The clip is brief but hints at potential tensions to come between Jon Snow’s Stark siblings and his newfound love and queen, Daenerys Targaryen. Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd teases: “What follows is a thrilling and tense intermingling of characters — some of whom have never previously met, many who have messy histories — as they all prepare to face the inevitable invasion of the Army of the Dead.”
Take a look:
While Game of Thrones is gearing up for its final season, work on the show’s upcoming spin-off series continues. The prequel show, tentatively titled The Long Night, is to film its first season this year, beginning in the Canary Islands and ending in Northern Ireland, according to The Belfast Telegraph.
Meanwhile, Deadline reports that HBO has nailed down a director and cast for the the show’s pilot episode. With SJ Clarkson directing, the cast list is diverse and promising. It also includes one Westerosi alumni: Campbell Bower, who played Waymar Royce in Game of Thrones‘ original, ill-fated pilot episode. Though that version of the show’s pilot has yet to see the light of day, and Bower was recast, it’s a fun bit of trivia for Thrones fans.
Regardless of one’s opinion when it comes to the quality of Game of Thrones, most can agree that the show has always knocked it out of the park when it comes to casting and I imagine that the spin-off series won’t be any different in that regard. Speaking of which, Richard Madden (Robb Stark) recently won a Golden Globe for his acting in Bodyguard. While attending the awards ceremony, he confirmed that he still watches GOT and elaborated on his hopes for future the rule of Westeros: “Jon and Daenerys. I think they could do it together, I think that would be good.” We do too, Richard.
Keep checking in with us for the latest Game of Thrones news.
