Game of Thrones 2017 preview: What’s on the way this year

What battles will we see in Season 7?

Based on behind-the-scenes scoops, we can look forward to some pretty legendary battles for the Iron Throne in Season 7. It looks like there’re be four significant ones that drive the plot.

The Greyjoys Cometh

First off, we can assume there’s a melee between the Greyjoys (Team Euron and Team Yara) and the Sand Snakes at some point early in the season, based on these photos from Cáceres.

King Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk) is seen leading Yara (Gemma Whelan), Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) and Tyene Sand (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers) through the streets King’s Landing. We’re sure to see a skirmish before their capture takes place. Given the Greyjoy family’s fondness for ships, it may happen on the ocean, in which case much of it will be rendered in post-production.

The Lion vs the Rose

These snaps from El Barrueco de Arriba in Spain show the leftovers of a massive row between the Lannisters and the Dothraki. Word is that Daenerys and her Dothraki ambush Jaime and his Lannister soldiers after the latter travel to the Reach and sack Highgarden, home of the Tyrells. (That material was filmed at the Castillo de Almodóvar del Río, also in Spain.) But from the looks of things, both sides sustain losses.

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And judging by this clip, Dany’s dragons may take part in the battle, as well, or at least in the aftermath.

Did you hear the actor scream “Khaleesi!” right as he catches on fire? Intriguing.

The wight stuff

Remember that large, snowy set we mentioned on the slide about filming locations, the one the production built at Wolf Hill Quarry near Belfast? The production filmed another large battle scene there, this one involving the Night King’s army. The battle will reportedly feature 300 extras playing wights. It required at least three weeks of filming, which is a very long time in TV terms.

Here’s a shot of the set:

As far as the Night King himself making an appearance, Benioff and Weiss are vague about how much of him we’ll see. “We don’t think of The Night King as a villain as much as Death,” they told Deadline. “In some ways, he’s just Death, coming for everyone in the story, and for all of us.” Hard to predict a guy like that.

Meeting at the Dragon Pit

This isn’t a battle, but it’s just as exciting: there are reports that a massive number of principal players gathered at the ruins of Italica outside Seville to film a scene at the Dragonpit in King’s Landing. Players include Lena Headey (Cersei), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Rory McCann (Sandor “The Hound” Clegane) and many more. That’s bound to be one interesting conversation, and will probably happen very late in the season.

Next: Where can fans find even more spoilers?