Maisie Williams is the first Game of Thrones star to arrive in Belfast for season 8!

Thanks to Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), we know that filming on the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones begins in October, which is right around the corner. It looks like shooting may start up sooner in the month rather than later, as Maisie Williams (Arya Stark) has been stopped in Belfast, Northern Ireland the production center for the show.

Williams is the first of the Game of Thrones  cast members to be seen arriving in the city, but if history is any guide, we can expect to see a lot more of them make their way there soon. It’s kind of wistful: this is the last time we’ll get to do this particular song and dance. I’m sure the actors are feeling it, too.

The production has been at work ahead of them. In particular, they’ve been hard at work on the exterior Winterfell set at Moneyglass, Northern Ireland, doing fairly extensive renovations for this final round of filming:

We’ll keep a look out for who arrives in the coming days and weeks. Then the long filming begins. There’s no official word on how long it’ll last, but The Hollywood Reporter, speaking to HBO programming president Casey Bloys, said it go as late as August of 2018, which would make it the longest Game of Thrones production cycle yet. Pair that with the huge budget for the season, and these final six episodes stand a chance of being something very special.

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