Entertainment Weekly has returned from Westeros tonight bearing gifts – specifically the first official plot details (!) weaned from Game of Thrones season 8.
It’s not much, really, but it’s enough to fuel excitement ahead of what is undoubtedly one of the biggest series finales since Breaking Bad. We begin in Winterfell, where Daenerys and her army begin battening down the hatches in preparation for the Night King and his undead army. Oh, and the reanimated Viserion, just in case you thought the odds were in the Targaryens’ favor.
And, yes, that’s Targaryens plural, as Jon Snow’s true identity has finally been revealed; he’s not some anonymous bastard, he’s the one true heir to the Iron Throne, which will no doubt lead to some complications further down the line. First things first, there’s a thrilling and tense showdown about to occur in Winterfell.
Here’s the official EW intel, hot off the presses:
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.
Bryan Cogman, the show’s co-executive producer, certainly echoes this promise of “thrilling and tense” drama, and even went so far as to say that season 8 delivers an “incredibly emotional” and “bittersweet” ending to HBO’s flagship.
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 George set out to do — which is flipping this kind of story on its head.
The eighth and final season of HBO’s fantasy juggernaut will arrive sometime next year. When, exactly, Game of Thrones airs its series finale is still up for debate, but with so much content spilling onto the interwebs, fans will have plenty to pore over as season 8 inches closer and closer.
