The finale saw the evil, ice cold villain (played by Vladimir Furdik) finally launch an attack on the 800-year-old Wall, with Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) newly-turned Wight dragon Viserion in tow.
As the dragon rained down icy blasts on the structure, characters Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) and Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) were left staring into the terrifying abyss as destruction came hurtling towards them, but fans will have to wait until season eight to find out if they survived.
Now, as the HBO fantasy’s production team have been hard at work remodelling one of the series’ most iconic sets, it’s become clear that the changes have been extensive and could be hinting at a huge impending battle.
In pictures taken by one Twitter user at Winterfell’s location in Moneyglass, Northern Ireland, eagle-eyed viewers can see that the Stark towers are being reconstructed from the ground up, as blocks of reddish-brown wood are gradually being covered over to look like stone.
While this kind of comprehensive re-working of large-scale sets has been completed year after year on the hugely-popular series, given the mammoth end to last season – could this project be for an entirely different reason?
The Night King’s destruction of the Wall appeared to be mostly CGI in the finale, yet if the same were to occur against Winterfell – it would potentially require a more complicated plan.
Is the set being rebuilt in such a way only to be eradicated by the Wight Viserion in one foul swoop during one season eight scene? And will fan-favourite characters Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) be in the fort at the time?
Meanwhile, the HBO show suffered a catastrophic loss at the prestigious Emmy Awards in America last night, when its most money-making series failed to gain even one nomination for the golden gong.
The loss must be a disappointment to both the production and fans alike, given it has racked up a total of 38 Emmy wins since the show premiered six years ago.
Yet the reason the epic series didn’t have a chance actually comes down to one simple reason – due to the later premiere date this year, it missed the deadline by 17 days.
Game of Thrones season 8 is expected to return in 2019.
