When Does Game of Thrones Start Again 2017

Equally soon as 2019 began, HBO tweeted what we were all thinking: "It's now officially the year that Game of Thrones comes back." The striking drama, based on George R. R. Martin's fantasy series, returns for its eighth and final season this spring—nearly a yr and eight months after the Flavour 7 finale—and it'll be full of drama, action, and surprises.

Beneath, we've rounded up everything to expect from GoT Season viii.

The Nuts

It will premiere on April xiv, 2019.

On November 13, HBO released a teaser trailer for GoT'southward final flavor, which unfortunately doesn't offer any new footage, but does ostend that the show returns in April 2019.

Still, a more recent teaser confirmed that Season 8 will premiere on Sunday, April xiv. Information technology will air at the usual time, nine:00 p.yard ET/PT, on HBO, the network confirmed. The sneak peek shows Jon Snow, Arya Stark, and Sansa Stark together (for the start time since Season 1), walking through the crypts at Winterfell. They pass past the graves of Ned, Catelyn, and Lyanna Stark, but strangely find their own graves at the end of the hall. Will Flavour 8 mark the cease of the Starks?

This is the final season.

In June 2016, HBO programming president Casey Bloys announced Season 8 would be Game of Thrones's concluding. "[The showrunners] have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to practice," he said during a press tour. "If I could go them to practice more I would take 10 more seasons. But we take their lead on what they [need] to brand the best version of their testify."

There will only exist half-dozen episodes.

At the end of Season half dozen, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss told Variety that they but had xiii episodes left, which meant vii for Season 7 and six for Season 8.

The writers for the new season are David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman and Dave Loma, HBO announced.

The episodes will be feature-length.

Though the episode count has decreased, the runtime will not. Later speculation nigh the run times for this season, HBO confirmed the lengths and dates for all half-dozen episodes for the final season, co-ordinate to The Hollywood Reporter.

Flavour eight, Episode one
Debut date: Sunday, April 14 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 0:54

Season 8, Episode 2
Debut date: Lord's day, April 21 at 9:00 p.one thousand. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 0:58

Season 8, Episode iii
Debut date: Sunday, April 28 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:22

Season 8, Episode four
Debut engagement: Sun, May five at 9:00 p.k. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:eighteen

Season 8, Episode five
Debut date: Lord's day, May 12 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running fourth dimension: 1:20

Flavor eight, Episode 6
Debut date: Sunday, May 19 at 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
Estimated running time: 1:20

Here are the teasers and trailers:

Here's the first official photo from the season:

Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen snuggle upwards in the cold.

And here are the official grapheme posters:

The official Season viii affiche shows a dragon as the Atomic number 26 Throne:

HBO

Some other version shows all the characters every bit corpses half-buried in the snowfall in the shape of the Iron Throne:

HBO

The Plot (AKA Potential Spoilers)

Flavour viii, Episode 1 starts with Daenerys Targaryen'south arrival in Winterfell.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the offset episode begins with Daenerys arriving to Winterfell, with Jon Snow and her army in tow. (It's basically a callback to Male monarch Robert Baratheon'due south inflow to the Stark stronghold in the very start episode.)

EW adds, "What follows is a thrilling and tense intermingling of characters — some of whom take never previously met, many who accept messy histories — as they all gear up to confront the inevitable invasion of the Army of the Expressionless."

Sansa besides isn't too happy about Jon'southward new girlfriend and Queen. (Call up he pledged his allegiance to her on the boat last season, after the battle against the Night King.) Other things to keep in mind: Arya is also at Winterfell (become set for her emotional reunion with Jon) and so are Sam and Bran (they but discovered that Jon is Rhaegar Targaryen'southward son and heir to the throne).

Sansa and Daenerys finally meet.

In a new video promoting its various programs, HBO teased a clip of Game of Thrones, one of the first pieces of footage unveiled from the upcoming season. The sneak peek shows Jon and Daenerys' return to Winterfell, and Sansa and Daenerys' get-go meeting.

Sansa will face a "big challenge."

Just because Littlefinger won't exist in Season 8, that doesn't mean Sansa is completely safe. "This season, there'south a new threat, and all of a sudden she finds herself somewhat dorsum in the deep end," Turner told Diversity. "And without Littlefinger, it's a exam for her of whether she tin get through information technology. It's a big challenge for her, without this master manipulator having her back. This season is more than a passionate fight for her than a political, manipulative kind of fight."

Product & Secrets from the Prepare

Filming started in October 2017.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) appeared to hint that Flavor 8 starts filming last autumn in an new interview. "I don't know what's going to happen next season, he told Collider in August 2017. "We go back in October, so peradventure in the side by side few weeks, we'll go the scripts and I'll notice out."

In a recent interview, Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos) revealed that filming is slated to first on October 16 or xix. The cast is expected to assemble to read scripts and get-go rehearsing on October 8. "We're filming correct upward until the summer," he told Idiot box Guide.

And it ended in July 2018.

In early on July, Game of Thrones fan site Watchers on the Wall quoted sources saying the prove was done filming—forever. At around the same fourth dimension, star Maisie Williams also bid adieu to her character, Arya Stark, with a heartfelt (all the same bloodied) mail service on Instagram.

"goodbye belfast. farewell arya. goodbye game of thrones. what a joy i've had. here'south to the adventures to come up #lastwomanstanding #barely#immasleepforthenextfouryears#justkiddingidontsleep," she wrote.

Nearly a month prior, Emilia Clarke also paid a last tribute to the show. "Hopped on a boat to an island to say adieu to the country that has been my home away from home for almost a decade," she wrote. "Information technology'south been a trip @gameofthrones thank you for the life I never dreamed I'd exist able to alive and the family I'll never stop missing #💔#lastseasonitis."

The White Walker boxing scenes took weeks to film.

The face-off between the White Walkers and humankind next season will include the series' biggest battle to date. The crew spent 55 nighttime shoots for the battle's outdoor scenes at Winterfell lonely, Entertainment Weekly reports. Afterwards, they moved to a studio and continued filming the same battle for weeks after.

There will also be multiple focal points in the combat sequence. The battle "intercuts between multiple characters involved in their own survival storylines that each feels like its own genre," according to EW.

The Winterfell set was even expanded for to accommodate for the fighting; the Stark stronghold got a castle outside, larger courtyard, and more interconnected rooms.

Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) says the Flavour eight battle "makes 'Battle of the Bastards' expect like a theme park."

HBO shared a peek of the cast'due south first 24-hour interval dorsum on gear up.

Days ahead of the season premiere, HBO shared a brusk video of cast members arriving to the set in Northern Ireland to begin filming Flavour 8. The footage shows stars like Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandei), Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont), and Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth) reuniting, getting into costume, and heading to the set to shoot scenes in Winterfell.

Multiple endings were reportedly filmed.

HBO's president of programming Casey Bloys revealed that the GoT team will film multiple endings for the series finale to ensure no spoilers are leaked during production. The tactic is aimed to fob the paparazzi snapping and leaking scenes beingness filmed. Information technology likewise means that actors won't fifty-fifty know the existent ending chosen for the show until it arrogance.

The budget is $15 meg—per episode.

Variety reports that this could be GoT's nigh expensive flavor withal, with a whopping upkeep of $xv million per episode. Compare that to the show'south previous expenses: Season 2 reportedly cost $6 million per episode, and Season half dozen apparently cost $ten million per episode.

George R. R. Martin doesn't call back the prove should cease right now.

"I don't think it should be the final flavor," the writer behind the A Vocal of Ice and Burn book series told The Hollywood Reporter at the Flavor 8 premiere. "But hither we are. It seems to me we simply started last week. Has it been longer than that? The fourth dimension has passed past in a blur. Just information technology'southward exciting. I know it's an end, but it'south not much of an finish for me."

Martin is notwithstanding in the middle of writing the book series and in that location are five possible GoT spinoff serial. "I call back I'yard going to be hanging around Westeros while everyone else has left," he told THR.

Jeff Kravitz Getty Images

The actors were reportedly fed lines through an earpiece.

Security has been tighter than e'er before for this flavor of GoT, following the big HBO hack that took place during Season 7. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) revealed that the actors are receiving their lines through an earpiece, to avoid leaks.

"[After] the hack happened, we're not even going to get the script. At present we are going to do a scene, we will exist told what'southward going to happen and and then we roll," he said in an interview on Skavlan. "Nosotros're all going to take earpieces for the scene and and so someone's going to tell you the line and then you're going to do the line."

That secretive tactic might not apply to the whole show, all the same. Liam Cunningham (Ser Davos Seaworth) said the cast received their scripts, and both Sophie Turner and Kit Harington have talked about their last read-throughs with the remainder of the cast in recent interviews. Then mayhap the earpieces will merely be used during crucial scenes or plot twists.

They reportedly filmed fake scenes.

Director David Nutter confirmed to Huffington Post that he filmed some fake scenes to keep the plot secret. "Well, sometimes there were paparazzi in astonishing places ― on construction cranes and all kinds of crazy places, to try to go a signal of view of things," he said. "They were all over, everywhere, trying to arrive on what was happening."

At that place was "no newspaper on set."

Nutter added that "there was no paper on fix" to keep the lines tightly nether wraps, he told Huffington Mail service. The security on the scripts was so high that Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) wasn't able to read information technology until the table read, the actor revealed to Metro.

The same went for the schedules. Joe Dempsie (Gendry Baratheon) said he "never laid eyes on a shooting schedule" while filming seasons 7 and viii. "Your filming dates are on a need to know basis," he told Metro in June 2018." Yous don't get hard copies of scripts anymore. They are all on this special app. Which are triple locked. The level of security has upped massively."

Mysterious huts have appeared on set.

Fans accept noticed huts at Titanic Studios in Belfast, where the GoT bandage and crew ordinarily movie. There were three structures spotted—two sized like the hut pictured below, and a larger one. There'south no confirmation on what the fix pieces are for yet, just information technology's possible they're Dotrhaki-related. Read more here.

Directors

Director Miguel Sapochnik returns.

The managing director behind epic GoT episodes like "Hardhome," "Battle of the Bastards," and "The Winds of Wintertime" might be signed on for Season 8. Watchers on the Wall noticed that 1 of the evidence's cinematographers, Fabian Wagner, recently shared a photo on Instagram featuring some of the GoT crew, including Sapochnik.

"Dorsum on Game of Thrones for prep of the final season and the squad is back together. Good times fifty-fifty though winter is already hither," his caption reads. Does that mean the manager is making his return?

Others photographed include assistant Caroline Alderson, VFX supervisor Joe Bauer, VFX producer Steve Kullback.

Director David Nutter also came back.

Histrion Jon Bradley (Sam Tarly) confirmed that both Sapochnik and Nutter have returned for Flavor eight in an interview with Huffington Postal service. Nutter has helmed episodes in Seasons ii, 3, and 5, but his about memorable was likely "The Rains of Castamere" (Flavor 3 Episode nine), which featured The Carmine Wedding.

With him and Sapochnik back on GoT, Bradley says every episode in the final season volition be at the aforementioned caliber of the show's Episode 9s. (The ninth season in each flavor is usually the most gripping, suspenseful, or activeness-packed.)

"You can tell that because we've got directors who have been in charge of some of the most huge setpieces in the by doing episodes all throughout the season," Bradley said.

The concluding episode was directed by David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

Bradley added that GoT's final episode is "in the right easily" under the direction of its showrunners, Benioff and Weiss. "I retrieve they've done an incredible job with this series. They deserve everything they get, and they deserve the correct to terminate this testify off in the style they see fit," he told Huff Post.

Castings

Ii new roles were bandage.

Alee of production, news bankrupt that GoT was looking to cast two new child roles for the last season. The first is for a "Northern daughter" around the age of eight, and the second is for a male child from a poor groundwork of the same historic period, or a few years older. The actors who state these roles will start filming in Nov, according to the listing obtained by fan site Watchers on the Wall.

A "Northern sentry" was cast.

In September 2017, a number of new roles were announced, including a Northern sentinel—a fellow between the ages of eighteen and 25. Concluding year, GoT fan site Watchers on the Wall reported that Irish actor Frank Blake landed the function. Blake'due south page on his agency's website confirms that he "recently shot on Game of Thrones."

The leader of the Golden Visitor has reportedly been cast.

Marc Rissman (The Final Kingdom) was reportedly cast as Harry Strickland, who commands The Aureate Company, the nigh powerful army in Essos, which Cersei Lannister has purchased to help conquer Westeros for skillful. Watchers on the Wall caught a hint of the German actor's casting when they saw the role listed on his Spotlight acting resume online, but information technology has since been deleted. Another fan site Winter Is Coming said Rissman said he'd work under "various" directors, suggesting he'll announced in multiple episodes. Does that hateful we'll accept a lot of war scenes in Season 8?

A new role named Sarra was cast.

Eagle-eyed fans on Watchers on the Wall noticed that actress Danielle Galligan's resume on her talent direction profile had been updated to say she was cast equally "Sarra" in "Game of Thrones (Series 8)" and will be working with manager David Nutter (who helmed the Red Hymeneals episode). Like Rissman, Galligan has since removed her GoT role from her profile. (But Mashable got a screenshot earlier it disappeared.)

The part of Sarra hasn't been confirmed, only fans believe it refers to Sarra Frey, who appears in the Song of Ice and Burn down books. She's i of Walder Frey's granddaughters, and one of the young women Robb Stark could've married. According to the GoT Wiki, Sarra has appeared in the testify before, portrayed by a different actress, in Nutter's Blood-red Wedding episode.

There's besides new role for a young girl.

Watchers on the Wall obtained a posting for the character, which is to be played past a ix- to xi-year-sometime "lamentable-eyed young girl." Her office reportedly revolves around "1 excellent scene with a leading cast fellow member." Only nosotros don't know which one yet. The memo also specified that the daughter has a southern accent instead of a northern one, which leads fans to believe she may be from King's Landing or the Riverlands.

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Source: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a10352619/game-of-thrones-season-8-news-date-spoilers/