“Season 8 opens at Winterfell with an episode that contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s pilot,” EW shares in the cover story. “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.”
Co-executive producer Bryan Cogman shares, “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.”
A previous battle in the show, known as the battle of the Bastards, took 25 days to film, while one of the battles in the last season took a whopping 55 days to shoot outdoor, with some additional time spent on the scene in the studio. This battle is rather important, as co-creator Benioff shares: “Having the largest battle doesn’t sound very exciting — it actually sounds pretty boring. Part of our challenge, and really, Miguel’s (“Battle of the Bastards director”) challenge, is how to keep that compelling… we’ve been building toward this since the very beginning, it’s the living against the dead, and you can’t do that in a 12-minute sequence.”
As if we weren’t excited enough for the last season. What a bittersweet feeling it’ll be. Are you excited for the final season of Game of Thrones? Let us know on social media!
