WARNING: Potential spoilers ahead for the FINAL Season of ‘Game Of Thrones!’ Turn back now if you want to end the series without any knowledge ahead of time!
Entertainment Weekly was lucky enough to score a trip to the set of ‘Game of Thrones’ while they were filming the final season, and this week they have a lot of coverage out about the highly anticipated series, which people have been waiting anxiously to premiere for over a year now (and we still do not have a premiere date!). They shared some details, including the fact that episode one will be a kind of homage to the pilot of ‘Game of Thrones,’ only instead of King Robert coming to Winterfell it will be Queen Daenerys, and the episode will including many meetings of characters all coming together to face the army of the dead, and include a subplot of Sansa being a little perturbed that Jon bent the knee of Dani.
In the exact words of the article over on Entertainment Weekly:
“Season 8 opens at Winterfell with an episode that contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s pilot. Instead of King Robert’s procession arriving, it’s Daenerys and her army. What follows is a thrilling and tense intermingling of characters — some of whom have never previously met, many who have messy histories — as they all prepare to face the inevitable invasion of the Army of the Dead.”
EW goes on to say that the battle to stop that invasion will be:
“…the most sustained action sequence ever made for television or film.”
According to the reporter at EW, who visited the set during filming of the final season, reports of the length of time it took to shoot that battle sequence were grossly UNDERestimated:
“The 55 nights were only for the battle’s outdoor scenes at the Winterfell set. Filming then moved into the studio, where Sapochnik [the director] continued shooting the same battle for weeks after that.”
And, for anyone worried about a full hour (or maybe more) episode that is all battle, and the fear of battle fatigue or just getting bored, the show planned ahead for that, and EW says that the episode, which will be entirely that battle, will still have:
“…intercuts between multiple characters involved in their own survival storylines that each feels like its own genre.”
Which, you know, sounds like an epic and amazing episode, especially since it is being directed by Miguel Sapochnik, the man who directed the ‘Battle of The Bastards‘ a few seasons ago. And to make things even more exciting, that battle apparently, according to EW, is not even the end of the series. The actual finale is the aftermath of that battle, the set of which EW got to visit, and gave a few light details about in their most recent report:
“I look around at a meticulously constructed set that I’ve never seen on the show before. Several actors are performing, and I’m stunned: There are characters in the finale that I did not expect. I gradually begin to piece together what has happened in Westeros over the previous five episodes and try not to look like I’m freaking out. There is absolutely nothing more that can be said about that scene at this time.”
Lots of teases here, though I appreciated the subtlety, as I don’t want to be that spoiled going into the end, and this is just enough to get me excited.
What are your thoughts on the news of this massive battle and what it could mean for the end of ‘Game of Thrones?’ Do you have any theories on what characters might survive and be in that final scene? Feel free to share your theories and opinions in the comments below!
