Buckle up, boys and girls: we have some season 8 SPOILERS for you. If you’d wanting to go into the final season of Game of Thrones completely blind, turn back now.
In the past few weeks, we’ve watched as first the Unsullied, then the Dothraki, then a Northern army, and finally the army of the dead itself have filmed in front of a ginormous green screen erected at Magheramorne Quarry in Northern Ireland. Filming is still going on there now, with masses of extras gathered there every night. Check out the latest images from (click to blow them up):
I see a figure wearing red toward the left of the center of that photo. Is that you, Melisandre?
Also, notice the short figure on the far right side of this photo:
Can that be anyone but Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), or a double…or a prop?
But enough peering at photographs. We have some actual spoilers courtesy of fansite Los Siete Reinos. Per sources at LSR, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) have been on set, and will battle the army of the dead side by side. Now it’s a party.
Photographers haven’t been able to get close enough to the green screen to get clear images of who exactly is on set, but recently, Oakleaf Photography snapped an image of someone it thought was Christie as Brienne, which dovetails nicely with LSR’s report. You can judge for yourself:
And there’s more; LSR also gives us a good idea of when the army of the dead will clash with the army of the living. According to their sources, we’ll see the Night King and his army in the opening episode. By Episode 3, he will have added Night’s Watchmen to its ranks, which can’t be good for the people at Castle Black. In that episode, aerial shots will show us the army of the dead marching through snow amid lit bonfires. We can’t imagine the Night King set those fires himself. They’re probably getting close to their destination by this point.
Episode 4 is when Jaime and Brienne will face down the army of the dead, probably alongside the forces we’ve seen filming at Magheramorne Quarry in the past few weeks. We don’t know exactly where in Westeros this battle will take place, although Winterfell seems like a safe bet.
Ultimately, our hearts swell at the thought of Brienne and Jaime fighting side by side. One more year to go.
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