HBO reveals that Game of Thrones will be back for Season 7 on Sunday, July 16! Watch the first teaser about the impending war.
Game of Thrones fans, we got some pretty great news today! After sharing a teaser poster for Season 7 yesterday, this afternoon HBO confirmed that the show will return for its seven-episode seventh season on Sunday, July 16, 2017 at its regular 9:00pm ET|PT time slot!
It really was a big reveal, or at least an attempt at one via Game of Throne‘s official Facebook page. Like the poster that teases the impending duel between fire and ice (after all, we know that Dany and her dragons are heading to Westeros just as Winter as arrived), fans watched as live flames melted a block of ice to reveal the Season 7 premiere date. You can watch the 17-minute video HERE, that also includes a little message from Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (AKA Jaime Lannister) encouraging fans to stick around and watch. Eventually (after a tech snafu), the July 16 date is revealed.
According to The Wrap, there is a reasonable explanation for the slight delay of the upcoming season:
As the network announced last year, the shortened, seven-episode season of “Game of Thrones” will premiere later in the year than usual in order to accommodate the show’s shooting schedule. Due to the show’s new winter setting, the HBO fantasy epic began production later in the year.
If you’ll recall, by the end of the Season 6 finale, “Winds of Winter” there are several major developments:
Jon Snow is King in the North, and we learn his parentage: Lyanna Stark is Jon’s mother, saved from the Tower of Joy by Ned after she dies in childbirth.
Sansa is also alive and free from Ramsay’s clutches. She’s the leading lady in Winterfell and has helped her half-brother assume the mantel of leadership. Although, Littlefinger might have sewn seeds of distrust between Sansa and Jon.
Arya has reclaimed her identity and returns to the Riverlands where the slaughters Walder Frey and his sons.
Dany, in an alliance with Yara Greyjoy, the Sandsnakes, and Olenna Tyrell, is finally sailing to King’s Landing to take the Iron Throne
And in King’s Landing, after Tommen commits suicide (a result of learning that High Sparrow, his followers, the Tyrells [Margaery/Loras], and many of the highborn have been killed in wildfire), Cersei has installed herself as queen.
The first teaser released in conjunction with today’s news definitely warns us that “the great war is here”. We see each of the major houses’ sigils, circling one another, all the while we here iconic statements from several characters, warning about impending conflict. In the end, the sigils all crumble… YIKES:
The great war is here. #GoTS7 premieres 7.16. pic.twitter.com/1Jna10kNuQ
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) March 9, 2017
Lannister, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell, they’re all just spokes on a wheel. This one’s on top and that one’s on top and on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground. I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.
And Queen Dany is obviously serious, but it doesn’t look like things will end well for any of the houses. Besides, shouldn’t we expect a dragon/direwolf union? No?
According to Entertainment Weekly, showrunners/EPs David Benioff and Dan Weiss will be joined by Maisie Williams (Arya) and Sophie Turner (Sansa) for a panel at South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Here’s hoping a little more information is forthcoming!
Did you watch the premiere date reveal live? What are you most excited about for Season 7? Share you Game of Thrones flails in comments!