Watch the Game of Thrones Season 7 teaser trailer here, and check out everything else we know.
At long last, Game of Thrones season 7 is almost here. While it strangely won't be until after the Fourth of July that the deep freeze of the White Walkers arrives, the hype is building, cracks in the wall are growing, and our excitement remains as consistent as Jon Snow's virtue.
Aye, Game of Thrones season 7 will consist of seven episodes and is arriving on July 16, confirming the icy dread that 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...
Game of Thrones Season 7 Trailer
It's time to rally the banners, because we have our latest teaser trailer, and the first with actual footage! Mind you, it's pretty obvious that this is just a promotional teaser and not actual footage from Game of Thrones season 7, but it is still a damn fine start.
Below feast your eyes on "The Walk" promo, which showcases the three remaining (major) players in Westeros who have a proverbial crown on their head: Cersei Lannister in King's Landing, Jon Snow (one day, they're going to start calling him Jon Stark, right?!) in Winterfell, and Daenerys Targaryen in what I suspect is a throne room within Dragonstone. If you do not recall, Dragonstone was the storm-tormented island that Stannis Baratheon languished away upon for years until his brother died, and it is also the location Dany's mother fled on a stormy night while giving birth to her daughter.
All three look ready to continue the game, albeit Jon's game is more about preserving the North than taking the Iron Throne. And speaking of the North, there is an unexpected fourth party who makes a cameo near the end of the tease.
Below is the first teaser, in case you missed it.
Game of Thrones Season 7 Release Date
The Game of Thrones season 7 release date is July 16, 2017.
Latest Game of Thrones Season 7 News
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has been making the press rounds recently for his new Netflix film, Small Crimes. Which of course means one thing: he is going to be asked Game of Thrones questions.
So it was at SXSW while chatting with The Daily Beast. During the discussion, Coster-Waldau invariably remarked on that now infamous final image from Game of Thrones season 6 of Jamie Lannister. You know, when he is shooting daggers out of his eyes at his sister, lover, and now new reigning Queen Supreme, Cersei Lannister.
"Jaime’s addicted to something—almost institutionalized by a situation to where there is no other way. For Jaime, there is no other way. He’s been groomed since he was 15 that, whatever his life is, it starts and ends with Cersei. He has to accommodate her. He’s done that his whole life, and he’s reached a moment now where he suddenly has to address it. What’s interesting about that is people will read into it and there was no line—it’s just a look."
Coster-Waldau also inadvertently revealed that there might be a new suitor for Cersei Lannister's affections. We'll leave it to fans to speculate about who the (un)lucky fellow might be, but yeah, good luck with that, dude.
"He loves his sister unconditionally. Plus, there are no other suitors. Well, that’s not true… but he has to step up and take his father’s place. Wow, I was about to reveal something from season 7 and thought, 'What am I doing?'"
Game of Thrones Season 7 Episodes
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?