The marketing for Game of Thrones season 8 is well underway now, and EW's latest cover story dropped some fascinating hints about fans can expect from the final season. While HBO has yet to reveal a trailer or even the release date for the final six episodes of the series - the network promises it will premiere in the first half of 2019 - co-executive producer Bryan Cogman promises it will be "a very emotional, haunting, bittersweet final season." In the meantime, here is some new info for fans to obsess over.
Season 8 of Game of Thrones will depict the final confrontation between the people of Westeros, led by Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), and the army of undead White Walkers ruled by the Night King. It will also resolve the lingering question of who will sit upon the Iron Throne, currently occupied by Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), which has been complicated by the fact that Jon is actually half-Targaryen and his lover, Daenerys, is actually his aunt. In addition, there are numerous subplots involving the series' bevy of fan-favorite characters to be resolved as the fate of all of Westeros is threatened by the army of the dead.
Related: Every Game of Thrones Season 8 Spoiler We Know
EW visited the set during the production of season 8 and spoke to many of the key players, including the actors and the series' creators and executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. While the magazine's coverage was spoiler-free, there are still a number of compelling hints about how Game of Thrones will conclude that we've compiled here:
- This Page: What's Been Revealed About Game of Thrones Season 8's Production
- Page 2: What's Been Revealed About Game of Thrones Season 8's Story
The Cast's Emotional Reactions To The Final Scripts
The magnitude of Game of Thrones' ending was certainly felt by the cast, who received top-secret encrypted season 8 scripts in October 2017. While most immediately devoured their copies of the final episodes, two main players waited until the cast's table read: one was Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, because he couldn't crack the email attachment's security, and the other was Jon Snow himself, Kit Harington, who wanted to wait to experience it live with his fellow actors.
The reactions were emotional; Harington admits to crying (twice) while Emilia Clarke "flipped out." Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, found the final scripts "completely overwhelming" and she was among the first to email her reactions to Benioff and Weiss. Peter Dinklage even broke his longstanding tradition and didn't skip to the end to find out if his character Tyrion Lannister dies. Of course, everyone was sworn to absolute secrecy about the final episodes and the producers even banned any kind of selfie on set.
Lucasfilm And Star Wars Influenced Season 8 Secrecy
Game of Thrones had already been shooting under a blanket of extreme secrecy but they stepped up security in season 8 - thanks to Star Wars. David Benioff and Dan Weiss have their own Star Wars movies in the works and their new boss, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, as well as Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, showed Game of Thrones' head honchos ways to beef up season 8's security even further. Weiss said, "They’ve given us a lot of hints about how to lock things down, things we never would have thought of or didn’t know were possible."
Part of their tactics included using drone killer robots to shoot down drones trying to take paparazzi photos from above and special code names for each of the actors in order to see production documents. This is all great practice for Benioff and Weiss, who will presumably begin working on their Star Wars projects once Game of Thrones season 8 concludes.
Producers Wanted Game Of Thrones To End With 3 Theatrical Movies
Game of Thrones' producers' original plan wasn't to end the series on HBO: they wanted to release three two-hour films that would comprise the final season in movie theaters. This was meant to echo Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which is author George R.R. Martin's major influence when he wrote A Song of Ice and Fire, but it also was a tactic to get more money from HBO. Benioff and Weiss feared even their original $5 million-per-episode budget (which now pales in comparison to Disney's $10 million-per-episode budget for The Mandalorian) wouldn't be enough to depict the conclusion they had planned; their reasoning was a theatrical release would get them a budget worthy of summer tentpole-sized movies.
However, HBO is about creating content for their subscribers and not releasing theatrical films and besides, Game of Thrones' audience only grew season-to-season, which was enough to justify giving Benioff and Weiss everything they needed to end Game of Thrones the way they wanted - which includes a budget of over $15-million per episode for season 8.
Page 2 of 2: What EW Revealed About Game of Thrones' Season 8's Story
Jon & Daenerys' Arrival In Winterfell Echos The Series Premiere
Game of Thrones season 7 ended with Jon and Daenerys en route by ship to the North, and season 8 picks up with Daenerys' first visit to Winterfell alongside her new lover, the King in the North. This calls back to the very first episode of Game of Thrones, where King Robert Baratheon (Mark Addy) and the Lannister clan arrived in Winterfell to ask Ned Stark (Sean Bean) to return to King's Landing with him. EW says the first season 8 episode promises "a thrilling and tense intermingling of characters — some of whom have never previously met, many who have messy histories."
This would have to include Sansa and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) meeting Daenerys for the first time, and neither Stark sister will likely be thrilled to see Tyrion Lannister again - especially since Sansa may still be technically married to the Imp.
Sansa Is Not Happy About Jon & Daenerys
Just as how in the series premiere, a younger and much more innocent Sansa was present to receive King Robert and the Lannisters, she will welcome Daenerys and her army to her ancestral home, but this time as the Lady of Winterfell. However, Sansa is not thrilled (at least, not at first) to learn that her half-brother bent the knee and swore the North's fealty to the Mother of Dragons. Sansa has fought for respect the last couple of seasons and in Jon's absence, she and Arya killed Lord Peter Baelish (Aidan Gillen), one of the Stark family's greatest enemies.
Meanwhile, as far as Sansa was aware, Jon was supposed to be at Dragonstone negotiating for dragonglass to fight the White Walkers, so she's not pleased when he returns as Daenerys' lover and her loyal subject - which makes Sansa and the North her subjects as well. (And wait until the truth about Jon and Daenerys' blood relationship actually comes out!)
Related: Sophie Turner Thinks Game of Thrones' Ending Will Divide The Fanbase
Winterfell Will Be Bigger Than Ever
If fans think they've seen every nook and cranny of Winterfell over the past 7 seasons - think again. Season 8 greatly expands the ancestral castle of House Stark in order to fully depict Winterfell as a setting for epic battles against the White Walkers.
The "new" Winterfell has "a towering new castle exterior, a larger courtyard, and interconnected rooms and ramparts" in which key subplots for certain characters during the major battles will take place. EW describes the much bigger Winterfell as "a sprawling, immersive, medieval resort" compared to its previous "Days Inn-like scale."
The Final Battle Calls Back To The Series Premiere
One of season 8's episodes will be wall-to-wall action directed by "Battle of the Bastards"' helmer Miguel Sapochnik - this could be a White Walker attack on Winterfell. The scale of his epic battle dwarfs even season 6's "Battle of the Bastards" and the production spent 55 night shoots just to film all of the exterior shots - over twice as much as the 25 nights needed for "Battle of the Bastards". Shooting then moved to soundstages where interior scenes took several more weeks to film. The battle also involves multiple characters who are caught up in their own survival storylines "that feel like separate genres." This was all part of a heightened production process where scenes were shot over several days with multiple angles and takes to ensure the producers had every option available to make the final episodes truly epic.
The battle with the White Walkers at Winterfell is also a callback to the very first scene of Game of Thrones' series premiere. (Also, this isn't the first time that Game of Thrones included season 1 callbacks.) In the opening moments of season 1, members of the Night's Watch traveled beyond the Wall and encountered White Walkers for the first time in hundreds of years. Season 8's final clash with the army of the dead is meant to bring the series full circle.
Surprising Characters Make It To The Series Finale
EW's set visit took place in March 2018 and coincided with the filming of the final episode of the series in which some Game of Thrones characters are surprisingly still alive. This is certainly an intriguing tidbit as it begs the question of which of the cast survive the battle with the Night King and make it all the way to the end? One of the actors EW spoke to about how difficult it is for the cast to keep from spoiling secrets was Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry - does this mean the bastard son of Robert Baratheon makes it to the end (after being absent for so long)?
The question of survival hangs over every single character on Game of Thrones, which has shocked fans by killing off main characters since the beginning. But the possibility that certain characters don't die (possibly even some that deserve to) is a compelling new twist for Game of Thrones fans to debate in the long winter months until season 8 premieres.