Season 8 filming: Ominous activity at the Winterfell set—Beware SPOILERS

We’ve got an exciting/terrifying new shot from a key Game of Thrones set. If you don’t mind exposure to SPOILERS, read on.

Okay, so the Game of Thrones team is currently hard at work filming scenes on the Winterfell set in Moneyglass, Northern Ireland. They’ve overhauled the set this year, building physical battlements and towers that used to be added in after the fact with CGI. We’ve theorized that this was done in preparation for a big battle scene, as you don’t build physical structures unless you plan to have actors interact with them. Now, it looks as though something like that has come to pass. Below, Oakleaf Photography Reports that there was indeed a big battle filmed on the scene, complete with over 200 extras:

The pictures are eerie: Winterfell at night, braziers lit up, and thick plumes of smoke — or possibly fog — billowing around the place. When viewed from a distance, the castle almost looks like it’s on fire:

And here are a couple of the first shots in isolation:

In the above, picture, you can see some of those 200+ extras milling around the bottom of the frame. They’re in silhouette, but I can make out a couple of spears. I think Unsullied are among that group. That would track with an earlier report that extras playing Unsullied soldiers were training not far from the Winterfell set, and that all of them were wielding spears tipped with dragonglass.

The more I look at these, the more it looks like there’s a fire happening inside the castle, as well, or possibly in the courtyard — notice the blazing light cast on the wall of the low-lying tower on the right.

In addition, this video of the shoot gives an even better idea of what’s happening.

Notice that the extras start chanting in unison around 0:45.

So! There’s a big battle at Winterfell, it takes place at night, and stuff is on fire. What do you think is happening? For our money, it can only involve the White Walkers — Winterfell has always been in their crosshairs. And given all the fire and smoke, Zombie Viserion may have paid the place a visit.

Then again, this could also be Drogon or Rhaegal’s doing. And what to make of the soldiers chanting in unison? Maybe we’re dealing with an army of the living rather than the dead.

At this point, we know a fair amount of what happens at Winterfell. We know the first scene of the season will take place nearby and that there are a couple of scenes set in the castle crypts, one of which ends with a horn being blown. Three blasts?

Thanks to the reader who directed our attention to the image from@marvelatniall! What do you guys make of all this?

Next: Design studio Karakter releases must-see concept art for Game of Thrones season 7

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