Here's everything we know so far about Game of Thrones Season 7, including the first images and new Stark children info.
And like that, our summer joy quickly vanished, its warm embrace fading into the bitter taste of a winter’s kiss in a seeming instant. For despite Game of Thrones finishing its 2016 season before even the Fourth of July, White Walkers were on the move… and we have to now wait possibly another nine months until Game of Thrones season 7 relieves us from our patient watch once more!
Aye, Game of Thrones season 7 will consist of seven episodes and debut possibly several months later than expected, confirming the icy dread that fans have expected for months now: the Long Night of Winter is here, and the coming summer will be shorter than ever.
“Now that winter has arrived on Game Of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, said in a statement. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”
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But there is plenty of good news too. Join us in this living and breathing document as we anticipate the coming ice storm!
Latest Game of Thrones News
In addition to appearing as one of the focal points of our first official glimpse of Game of Thrones season 7 (which we have below), Sophie Turner has recently been speaking with Entertainment Weekly about what season 7 will mean for Sansa Stark. In the sixth year of the hit series, Sansa finally ascended to a position of power in the North, and has the furry wolf cloak to prove it. Fans cheered when she got her revenge on Ramsay Bolton, but they've also cringed at a plot thread that was introduced in last several episodes... that she might be so jealous of Jon Snow's new crown that she will take the bait of Littlefinger's whispered betrayal. We think the showrunners have lain the breadcrumbs on a little too thickly to believe that it will play out like that, but Ms. Turner has no problem at least implicitly fanning that flame again.
While chatting with EW, Turner said, "She’s seemingly in control for the first time – and it really suits her.She’s kind of having a bit of a power trip. But she’s also becoming more insecure, because there are threats to the power that she holds."
She also added, "What overall excites me about this season is that main characters are coming together and it feels like things are ramping up. It’s really exciting and all feels like it’s coming to a big conclusion."
The first comment certainly suggests the tension of whether Littlefinger will turn Sansa against Jon is going to continue to be a point of suspense in season 7. However, if it were really to happen, I personally imagine it wouldn't be so telegraphed as a possibiity. The other comment though is a bit more tantalizing. In season 6, we had the first Stark reunion in five years when Sansa and Jon Snow reunited to viewer cheers. Could season 7 see Bran or even Arya also making their way to Winterfell?
Well, the aforementioned Stark images revealed below certainly seem to suggest that Arya is Northbound.
Game of Thrones Season 7 Premiere Date
As has been much discussed, Game of Thrones season 7 was delayed until an unspecified month in summer 2017. The reason for the delay was previously explained by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on the UFC Unfiltered podcast. Apparently, now that Winter is finally here (it only took six years!), it means that production will have to start later--in September to be exact--to allow for the proper grim and gray weather necessary for Westeros.
“No … we don’t have an airdate yet, but this year it’ll probably be a bit later,” the showrunners told UFC Unfiltered hosts Matt Serra and Jim Norton. “[Because] we’re starting a bit later because at the end of this season, ‘winter is here,’ and that means that sunny weather doesn’t really serve our purposes anymore. So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim, grey weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot.”
During the show's SDCC panel, which we covered live, Benioff further explained with some humor, "We have to shoot in places where there are trees, so we have to wait for the leaves to fall off. So, we’re actually waiting to shoot [until] later in the year. That means we don’t finish shooting until February, and there’s no way of finishing post; there’s no way to get the show out there until summer."
Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode Count
First, HBO unsurprisingly greenlit Game of Thrones for a season 7 before season 6 even aired. Building up the week of hype for the premiere, the premium cable network nonchalantly confirmed a seventh season in late April, but tellingly did not reveal the length.
We now know that it will be seven episodes, something that Benioff and Weiss have hinted for months now. But also worth noting is that at this time, season 8 looks poised to only be a mere six episodes.
Benioff and Weiss also confirmed this is the gameplan still while chatting with Deadline after season 6 concluded. On the endgame, Benioff said, "It’s two more seasons we’re talking about. From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now."
This would appear to confirm that season 7 will stick to their initial plan as a seven-episode affair. Still, maybe they'll realize they need an extra one or two episodes in season 8, so we'll get more than just six hours for the final year?