For Westerosi folk, the end is nigh.
Game of Thrones, HBO’s beloved and critically acclaimed fantasy series, is quickly approaching its eighth and final season, and don’t we know all about it. After eight years, 67 episodes and countless jaw-dropping scenes, the show now faces some mighty high expectations as it heads into its last run, so the onus is really on David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to deliver and send Thrones off on a high note.
Whether they’ll be able to do so or not remains to be seen, but as we quickly approach the April premiere, HBO has begun to peel back the lid just a bit and today, they’ve dropped a new batch of photos online, giving us a look at all our favorite characters. Kit Harrington as Jon Snow, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, the list goes on. They’re all featured here and you can dive right in via the gallery below.
Unfortunately, none of these shots are terribly revealing, but it’s still nice to get a look at the core cast regardless. And from everything we’ve heard so far, we’re in for a real treat. Apparently, HBO’s pulled out all the stops for this last round of episodes, boosting the budget for each one from $10 million to $15 million.
HBO Chief Richard Plepler certainly seems excited about it, too. He’s seen a workprint of the final season and explained the following in an interview a while back:
“It’s a spectacle. The guys have done six movies. The reaction I had while watching them was, ‘I’m watching a movie. They knew the bar was high. They’ve exceeded the bar. I’ve watched them twice without any CGI and I’m in awe. Everybody’s in for an extraordinary treat of storytelling and of magical, magical production.”
Beyond the expanded budget, we also know that the episodes will be longer than usual, which will surely give the creators the space to tell the story they want with the rhythms and pacing they choose. All in all, then, it’s sounding like Game of Thrones fans are in for a couple of exciting months, and it all kicks off on April 14th. The only question that remains is, are you ready for the beginning of the end?