April 14 can't come soon enough.
We're less than three months away from the season eight premiere of Game of Thrones, and it sounds like fans will be in for quite the ride.
After seven seasons and nearly 10 years of battles, dragons, white walkers and shifty, shady power plays, the HBO series will come to a close with its eighth and final season, premiering on April 14. And though we don't have many original characters left (RIP Hodor, Khal Drogo, the nicer Baratheon kids, everyone in the Sept of Baelor and most of the Stark family), it seems we should expect more death in the show's last six episodes.
Here's what we've learned -- as told by the series' cast and crew -- as well as every teaser and trailer for Game of Thrones' final season.
March 2017: HBO Exec Says Death Is Coming
Francesca Orsi, HBO SVP of Drama, spilled details of the show's season eight table read at theINTV Conference in Israel last March, where she confirmed that while we've been anxiously awaiting winter, death is coming with it.
“It was a really powerful moment in our lives and our careers,” she said, per Variety. “None of the cast had received the scripts prior, and one-by-one they started falling down to their deaths.”
Orsi noted that everyone stood and applauded for 15 to 20 minutes after wrapping the table read. “It was amazing,” she said. “By the very end, everyone looked down and looked up and tears were in their eyes.”
And while speaking with ET at the 2018 Emmys in September, GoT creator George R. R. Martin seemed to corroborate that few characters get through season eight alive.
"No comment," he teased when asked if death was on the horizon. "But all men must die. Valar Morghulis."
March 2018: Aidan Gillen Says a Happy Ending Isn't Likely
Though his character, Littlefinger, was brutally killed off by Arya at the end of season seven, Aidan Gillen told ET last year that he has an idea of how the show will conclude, though confessed that in season seven, the consensus was that the cast, writers and showrunners "didn't know" how it would end.
"I always thought it'd be nice for it to have a happy ending," he shared. "But I can't imagine that would be appropriate."
July 2018: Sophie Turner Says "Betrayal" Is Definitely in the Cards
From dealing with Joffrey to Littlefinger to Ramsey, Sophie Turner's Sansa Stark has been through a lot, and according to the actress, that'll continue next season. Though Sansa has slayed her abusers, there's still quite a bit of evil out there in Westeros and a new enemy that just broke through The Wall.
"This season is bloodier than ever," Turner told 1883 Magazine last July. "It’s full of betrayal, full of war, full of danger. That’s all I can say without giving too much away.”
September 2018: George R. R. Martin Says Season Eight Will Be "Bittersweet"
"[It will be] bittersweet, like... [J. R. R.] Tolkien... the end of Lord of the Rings, which I always found had a bittersweet quality," Martin shared on the Emmys red carpet. "That's the kind of thing I like."
Star Gwendoline Christie, who plays Brienne of Tarth, also spoke to ET at the event. "We have finished filming the final season, which has been incredible, an incredible process, and I think we have all worked incredibly hard to give you all the gift you deserve," she shared.
October 2018: Peter Dinklage Says He Gets a "Beautiful" Ending
Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister on the drama, told ET last October that he feels good about Thrones' highly anticipated finale.
"There are no better writers in television than [showrunners] Dan Weiss and David Benioff. They ended it brilliantly. Better than I could have imagined and you people are in for it," Dinklage said.
He added, "It ends beautifully for my character whether it be tragic or not."
November 2018: Director David Nutter Says Season Will 'Live Up to the Hype'
During an interview with ET last November, director David Nutter, who helms episodes one, two and four of the new season, said he was "nervous" but "confident" fans would like season eight -- at least how it starts.
"If you're a fan of the show, you will be completely satisfied by where the series goes to. They've really done a tremendous job in servicing the drama and the characters and so forth, and there are many ups and downs and twists and turns all across the Game of Thrones society and the world they are," he said, playing coy about whether he's directed a death this season following his brutal Red Wedding episode in season three.
Nutter did share, however, that the table read of all six episodes of season eight had the cast and crew "emotional." "It's a magical thing you watch," he said. "And it's funny because one of the actors hadn't really read what was happening next. He read the sequences as they were happening, and it was quite an emotional time for all of us to see where this whole story goes to."
"It's such a complete and satisfying finale and where the show goes to, and the journey that it takes, that it lives up to the hype and lives up to why the audience loves the show so much. It's going to be something quite, very special," Nutter added.
January 2019: Maisie Williams Says We Won't Be Satisfied -- But Kit Harington Is
During an interview with Sky News on Thursday, Maisie Williams warned that fans might not be too thrilled with how things conclude.
"I don't think anyone is going to be satisfied [when it ends]," she shared. "I don't think anyone wants it to end, but I'm really proud of this final season."
The actress plays Arya Stark, one the characters fans are hoping will make it out of this final season alive. A photo Williams shared from her last day of filming, however, hinted it won't be easy.
During an interview with The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show weeks earlier, Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, said he was "maybe not happy, but very satisfied" with the show’s ending.
"It's like when you finish a book, you're not happy it's over, are you? You don't finish a good book and say, 'I'm happy I finished that.' But you have this grief that it's over, and it's exactly the same with nine years doing this show. No matter how it ended, or how it does end, there's always this bit of you that's like, ‘Oh'; there's this loss around it,'" he explained.
"I'm so excited for people to see it," Harington continued. "I think it's going to be extraordinary; hopefully it'll change TV again like it did originally, and break boundaries. I think it might."
Harington's Snow seemingly gets put through the wringer in season eight -- alongside several other characters.
"The last season of Thrones seemed to be designed to break us. Everyone was broken at the end," the actor recently told GQ Australia. "I don’t know if we were crying because we were sad it was ending or if we were crying because it was so f**king tiring."
"We were sleep deprived. It was like it was designed to make you think, 'Right, I’m f**king sick of this,'" he added. "I remember everyone walking around towards the end going, 'I’ve had enough now. I love this, it’s been the best thing in my life, I’ll miss it one day -- but I’m done.'"
February 6, 2019: Icy New Photos Are Here
A chilly conclusion was teased when HBO released 14 new photos from Game of Thrones' final season on Feb. 6.
If one thing is clear, it's that is officially here, as Jon and Daenerys were seen bundled up and presumably plotting how exactly they'll stop the approaching White Walker army. Cersei (Lena Headey) was seen all by her lonesome, pictured away from her brother/lover -- and "Kingslayer" turned queen betrayer -- Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who, after the season seven finale, might just team up with our friends in the North.
See the rest of the images here.
February 24, 2019: Arya Gets Into the Action
HBO dropped a trailer for their slate of 2019 shows on Feb. 24 -- featuring just a little snippet of what's to come on Thrones.
One of Daenery's dragons majestically flew above an approaching army in one shot, which is later revealed to be quite a large group of soldiers. The show's tease completed with a shot of Arya looking up at something quite impressive (that dragon, maybe?). Check it out around the 0:48 mark below.
February 28, 2019: Everyone Has a Shot at the Iron Throne
On Feb. 28, everyone got a shot at the Iron Throne, as HBO shared 20 new posters featuring all of the show's key players sitting on the throne made of a thousand swords -- including the Night King.
March 5, 2019: Official Trailer Debuts
Six weeks before the season eight premiere, HBO released the official trailer. The one minute and and 49 second clip showed brand-new footage, with multiple characters getting their time to shine. The trailer began with a frantic and bloody Arya running for her life and talking about the "many faces" of death in an eerie voice over -- followed by Sansa seeing dragons at Winterfell for the first time, Jaime vowing the keep his promise to "fight for the living," and Jon's painful expression as he stands next to Daenerys. Check it out below.
March 21, 2019: New Season 8 Art Is Revealed
An Instagram video posted to Game of Thrones' official account had fans guessing, as below the Iron Throne were the fiery, shimmering golden eyes of a dragon. What does it mean?
March 27, 2019: HBO Announces GoT Documentary
On May 26, one week after the show's epic finale, the two-hour documentary, Game of Thrones: The Last Watch, will air on HBO, taking viewers behind the scenes of the series, as British filmmaker Janie Finlay spent a year with the cast and crew chronicling the creation of the series' grueling final season.
Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss serve as executive producers on the documentary, alongside fellow Thrones EP Bernadette Caulfield.
April 1, 2019: Maisie Williams Fake Spoils the Show
The 21-year-old actress pulled off maybe the greatest April Fools' prank ever when she appeared to accidentally share a GoT spoiler on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon -- saying that Arya dies in season eight's second episode. As she joked to ET's Leanne Aguilera at the HBO series' press day in New York on Tuesday, she was so impressed by her own acting that she started to "convince" herself it was all real.
"It was actually Fallon that came up with it -- it was the show," Williams explained. "We did a little rehearsal of it, and then people were like, 'Wow, it was really convincing because your hands were shaking... I was like 'Oh girl, you're convincing yourself!'"
April 2, 2019: New Teasers Are Released
HBO released not one, not two, but three brand new teasers in the first week of April, with one of them featuring Jon Snow and Arya's highly anticipated reunion.
The characters come together in the godswood of Winterfell in the promo, for the first time since season one. Arya is also shown bloodied and running for her life, like we've seen in the season's official trailer, while dragons, Greyjoys and a whole lot of ice and fire complete the promo, titled "Survival."
Check out the clip -- as well as the other two promos, titled "Together" and "Aftermath," below.
Game of Thrones returns April 14 on HBO. See more in the video below.
RELATED CONTENT:
