“He’s never been a bastard… he’s the heir to the Iron Throne.”
That bombshell arrived during the closing moments of Game of Thrones season 7, when it was revealed that Jon Snow wasn’t really Jon Snow at all, but Aegon Targaryen, son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark. One glance at the Thrones family tree tells us that Kit Harington’s protagonist is actually the nephew of Danereys, which no doubt paves the way for some complications going into the show’s final season.
Speaking of which, over at Entertainment Weekly, the first sneak peek of season 8 has emerged from the darkness, and it features Westeros’ hottest couple, Aegon and Daenerys Targaryen, sharing an embrace. They’ll once again be played by Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke, respectively, and here’s the duo talking about what lies ahead:
Harington: “It’s relentless; scenes that would have been a one-day shoot five years ago are now a five-day shoot. They want to get it right, they want to shoot everything every single way so they have options.”
Clarke: “[Camera] checks take longer, costumes are a bit better, hair and makeup a bit sharper — every choice, every conversation, every attitude, has this air of ‘this is it.’ Everything feels more intense.”
Only six episodes remain for this current Game of Thrones saga – for the record, HBO is plotting a Thrones prequel series, entitled The Longest Night, starring Naomi Watts – and there are still so many questions to answer before the curtain comes down.
One thing’s for sure: the family dynasties of Westeros will soon be coming together in the face of a common enemy, as co-executive producer Bryan Cogman tells EW:
It’s about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death. It’s an incredibly emotional haunting bittersweet final season and I think it honors very much what [author George R.R. Martin] set out to do — which is flipping this kind of story on its head.
Not since Breaking Bad has a series finale garnered so much excitement, but can Game of Thrones deliver a satisfying conclusion to what is arguably one of the greatest TV shows of the generation? We’ll find out in 2019.
