Every SPOILER we know for Game of Thrones season 8

The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones premieres in April. Naturally, HBO has released precious little information about it. We know who directed each of the season’s six episodes. We know that those episodes will probably be longer than normal, and we know that HBO has spent a whole lot of money and time making sure the home stretch of this story is the best stretch.

Historically, leaks are a common problem on the set of Game of Thrones. Ahead of season 7, if you knew where to look, you could find pretty much the whole story laid out for you. HBO has done a better job keeping a lid on things for season 8, which is impressive considering the scale of the production this time around.

Still, they were never going to be able to hide everything. So now, for one last time, we’re going to talk about every SPOILER we know about the next season of Game of Thrones. Click on if you dare:

Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Giantsbane almost definitely survived the fall of the Wall

Let’s start with a mystery posed at the end of Game of Thrones season 7, when the Night King blasted a giant hole in the Wall at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Tormund Giantsbane and Beric Dondarrion happened to be on top of the Wall at the time, and the episode left ambiguous whether they survived its fall.

Now, we could come at this from a bunch of different angles. We could point out that the episode went to the trouble of showing us that Tormund and Beric ran far enough along the Wall to escape the collapsing section, or that cast members like Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister) have openly said that they think Tormund lived. But the best proof that these two will be okay is that Kristofer Hivju, who plays Tormund, was straight-up spotted attending the season 8 table read with the rest of the cast in October. If he were just playing a corpse, there’d be no reason to include him.

That’s not absolutely definitive, but we’re calling it: Tormund and Beric are fine. They’ll probably run along the length of the Wall and try to warn the folks at Castle Black about the army of the dead being on the way.

Rhaegar Targaryen will probably make another appearance

Game of Thrones has a lot of characters, and with only six episodes left, there may not be enough to spotlight all of them. We do know of a couple ones who are returning though, including the fierce Lyanna Mormont (Bella Ramsey) and two characters introduced last season: Ned Umber (Harry Grasby) and Alys Karstark (Megan Parkinson). You may recall that pair from the season 7 premiere, when Jon Snow made them swear oaths of fealty at Winterfell. Both of their fathers fought for the Boltons in the Battle of the Bastards, but Jon doesn’t believe in blaming the children for the mistakes of their parents.

So the next generation of Northern leaders will be present and accounted for, which is great. A lot of people are probably going to die in the conflict with the White Walkers, so the North will need younger people to step up.

However, the most interesting potential return is Wilf Scolding’s. Scolding played Rhaegar Targaryen, Daenerys’ brother and Jon’s father, in a flashback sequence in the season 7 finale. During filming, Scolding uploaded (and then deleted) a picture himself outside the Europa Hotel in Belfast, the nerve center of filming on season 8:

Now, this doesn’t 100% mean that Rhaegar is returning, but also…c’mon, yes it does. The fact that Scolding deleted the picture is particularly damning; there’d be no need to get rid of it, if it didn’t give away something it shouldn’t.

As for what Rhaegar will be doing, we don’t know. We imagine Bran will see him during another one of his trips into the past. Last time we saw Rhaegar, we learned that he and Lyanna Stark were Jon’s parents. What will we learn this time?

We’ll get a bunch of new characters in season 8, including Marc Rissman as Golden Company commander Harry Strickland

At this point, you’d think Game of Thrones wouldn’t have room for more characters from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, but you’d be wrong. Fans who’ve read A Dance with Dragons may recognize the name of “Homeless” Harry Strickland, the commander of the Golden Company. Strickland will appear in season 8, played by actor Marc Rissmann. That’s a picture of Rissman in Netflix’s The Last Kingdom above. He looks like he’ll fit right in.

In the season 7 finale, we learned that Cersei had drafted the Golden Company into her war to take back Westeros, so she’ll need someone from the mercenary organization to play against. It looks like Strickland is it. In the books, Strickland is cautious to the point of cowardice. He’s a complainer and loves elephants. We’ll see how much of that characterization makes it to screen.

There are also a handful of other new characters we don’t know as much about, including Seamus O’Hara as someone named Fergus…

…Frank Blake as a “Northern sentry”…

…Laura Elphinstone as someone named Nora (Elphinstone is the one in the bed below)…

…child actress Bronte Carmichael as Martha…

…and Toby Osmund in a “royal” role. We think he might be playing someone from Dorne.

We also know that actors Danielle Galligan and Alice Nokes have been cast as characters named Sarra and Willa respectively. The two of them were spotted hanging with actor Emer McDaid in Belfast, talking about how they’d all just wrapped on something. We think they all filmed their scene or scenes together. While we can’t be sure, we suspect that they’re playing members of the Frey family (there’s a “Sarra Frey” in the books, a granddaughter of Walder’s). Perhaps we’ll stop by there and see how the place is doing after Arya killed off most of the men?

And those are all the new characters to whom we can attach actors. For others, we only have descriptions:

One final batch of new characters

There are still a few new characters to get through. For this final batch, we don’t know who’s playing them. Still, some of the character descriptions are interesting:

• A Northern Girl: This character is 8-10 years old, was brought up in a family of soldiers, and displays “dauntlessness and integrity.” The role is said to be a “very nice stand-out part for a strong-minded young girl with a fighting spirit.” We think this might be the role that Bronte Carmichael is playing.
• A Boy: This character is 8-12 years old, physically fit, and comes from a poor background; kid had to fight to carve out a place for himself in the world. The actor needs to “completely own the scenes that he appears in.” Note: that is ‘scenes’ with an ‘s’.
• Sad-eyed young girl: This actress needs to be between the ages of 9 and 11, have a neutral southern accent, and will share “one excellent scene with a leading cast member.”
• A young mother and her daughter: The mother is aged 25 to 30. She’s poor, and is in “a survival situation.” The casting department wants someone who knows how to improvise. Her daughter will be played by twins. The girls should be aged 5-8. This character is slated to appear in multiple scenes over the course of one episode.
• A mercenary: Aged 35-50, this guy is “an authoritative, fit, cool and charismatic military type.” He needs to to be able to ride a horse and will appear in two episodes.
• Northern farmer: Aged 25 – 35, this guy is a “straightforward honest man of simple tastes.”
• Sassy and attractive girl: Aged 18 – 25, she’ll play opposite leading cast members in a “memorable” scene. This is another small Northern role.
• Northern sentry, aged 18 – 25: This is another role with scenes opposite leading cast members. HBO wants “a characterful young Northern actor with great timing.”
• A sailor, aged 35- 50: “He’s a rough-and ready sea-faring type with a weathered face and strong presence.”
• A military guard: Aged 25-35, this actor can be of any ethnicity. HBO wants a “fit and agile excellent actor with a good distinctive face,” someone who “can handle himself in a fight.”
• A group of five characters who will feature in a scene where they’re “haggling over land.” HBO is looking for actors with improvisational skills for these parts.
• A male soldier, aged 30-40: HBO wants a “physically intense performance from a strapping squaddie type.” He’ll need to have combat skills, so look for him to appear in an action scene.
• A village girl, aged 18-25, who will be attacked in an “intense” scene requiring her to be naked above the waist.
• A clean-shaven grieving man: Aged 30-40, he’ll be in an emotional scene, although HBO doesn’t want anybody to “go over the top” with it.
• A pair of guards: Guard #1 is is a physically fit 20-something who’s good in a fight. Guard #2 is a tall, athletic 30-something. He’s professional, dependable and has one line opposite leading cast members.

And those are all the new characters we know of! Let’s move on to something else:

Daenerys arrives at Winterfell in the season 8 premiere, and things get awkward

According to reliable sources, the first scene of Game of Thrones season 8 will take place in the winter town, a village situated right outside of Winterfell. We’ve been to the winter town a few times. Brienne and Podrick stayed there in season 5 while waiting for Sansa to light a candle in the broken tower, and Tyrion visited a brothel there in the very first episode of the series.

As for what will happen in the winter town, Entertainment Weekly’s James Hibberd gives us some hints in his huge cover story about the final season:

"Season 8 opens at Winterfell with an episode that contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s pilot. 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."

Sounds like a fun premiere. We’ve actually already gotten a sneak peak at all that intermingling. HBO included a brief clip, looking at a season 8 scene, in an all-purpose promotional video:

Hibberd confirms that this is what it looks like: Sansa is hugging Jon Snow hello, but looking over his shoulder suspiciously at Daenerys Targaryen, the strange new ruler he’s brought to Winterfell. Emilia Clarke, who plays Daenerys, has said she’ll share scenes with both Sophie Turner (Sansa) and Maisie Williams (Arya), which should be a blast. And Hannah Murray (Gilly) has said that she has a few new interactions with cast members that she’s excited about.

HBO put a lot of effort into fixing up Winterfell for season 8

It’s the final season of Game of Thrones, so you might as well go big or go home, right? HBO went big, pouring a lot of money and time into refurbishing the Winterfell set at Moneyglass, Northern Ireland, building towers and crenellations that had previously been inserted after the fact with CGI. Check out some terrific images of the set, courtesy of fansite Watchers on the Wall (be sure to click the images to blow them up; these pics are worth studying up close):

Why is HBO going to the trouble of building out a full-scale Winterfell where before it had been content to digitally generate much of it? Well, that brings us to our next spoiler…

The Battle of Winterfell: Prelude

Honestly, “epic” might not do this battle justice. Let’s let the Game of Thrones “producer types” speak for themselves:

The Game of Thrones crew spent 55 nights filming this battle sequence in Magheramorne Quarry, and several other nights at Moneyglass and on indoor sets besides. Various cast and crew members have talked it up, and it sounds pretty insane:

• Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister): “It’s brutal. It makes the Battle of the Bastards look like a theme park.”
• Maisie Williams: “I am currently on my way to a night shoot, which is week 4 of 12 weeks of night shoots. It’s just huge. The task is huge. But, there’s no better way to leave the show, to be honest.”
• Showrunner David Benioff: “Having the largest battle doesn’t sound very exciting — it actually sounds pretty boring. Part of our challenge, and really, [director] Miguel [Sapochnik’s] 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.”

Writing about this battle in his EW cover story, James Hibberd describes it as “wall-to-wall action,” and says that it switches between the perspectives of several different characters, each of whom has a story that “feels like its own genre.” It’s gonna be nuts.

But we’re talking generalities. Let’s get into specifics. Per Watchers on the Wall, at some point in season 8, there will be a scene between two leading cast members in the crypts under the Winterfell. It will end when they hear a horn being blown. As you know, in the Night’s Watch, a horn is blown to warn of someone approaching — either rangers returning, wildlings at the gates, or White Walkers. We’re not sure what the horn means in this scene, but there are definitely people (or worse) approaching the castle, and they are not friendly…

The Battle of Winterfell: Fire

The Battle of Winterfell was filmed at a few different locations over a long period of time, but for right now, let’s focus on the shooting at the actual Winterfell set in Moneyglass. This eerie shot of Winterfell shrouded in fog and firelight should set the mood:

Okay, now, we don’t know exactly how the Battle of Winterfell will play out, but we do have a lot of photo and video from the set, and they seem to tell a story. In the below video, a crowd gathers outside the set. We think it’s a group of soldiers. At the 0:45 mark, it sounds like they’re pounding on the Winterfell gate in unison, perhaps trying to pound it down:

This is a little surprising, because we were expecting to see undead wights attacking the castle, not living soldiers. Don’t worry: the undead will show up as well, but in this clip, it looks like Winterfell is dealing with a human threat. Is it the Golden Company, sent north by Cersei to take care of the Dragon Queen and her Northern pet before the White Walkers get a chance?

It’s still a mystery. What’s clear is that, at some point, Winterfell gets set on fire:

GOT set on fire🔥

Posted by Steven McAuley on Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Ooh, that’s not good.

Again, we’re not sure exactly how this comes about. Perhaps the Golden Company sets fire to Winterfell on Cersei’s orders. Perhaps dragons are involved. Perhaps both. All we know is that things aren’t looking too hot for the Stark home base…figuratively speaking.

The Battle of Winterfell: Aftermath

As you might expect, this battle will leave many dead. Check out this image of corpses strewn across the ground outside the Winterfell set at Moneyglass (click to zoom in), courtesy of the Twitter account GoTlike Locations:

We can see what looks like a field strewn with bodies to the left of the castle, including some that look like horses.

Meanwhile, Oakleaf Photography has images of a pile of body part props outside the castle…

…and of blood left on the crenellations of the Castle Wall.

It looks like whoever attacks Winterfell, tries to scale the wall and gets a nasty surprise.

Anyway, that’s about all there is to see at Moneyglass. The bulk of this battle was actually filmed at Magheramorne Quarry, where the show has shot such sequences as the Battle of Blackwater, the Massacre at Hardhome, and many scenes at Castle Black. This year, HBO outdid itself and built something truly impressive:

To film the Battle of Winterfell, HBO built an enormous green screen

In order to bring their vision of an epic battle to life, the Game of Thrones team built a gigantic green screen at Magheramorne Quarry in Northern Ireland, visible from very far away:

So who all was gathered there for this weeks-long shoot? Let’s go through the roll call. First, we’ve got the Unsullied; notice their distinctive spears and helmets silhouetted against the green screen:

It’s worth noting that, before the Magheramorne shoot really got going, extras playing Unsullied warriors were filming material at Toome, Northern Ireland, just a few miles from the Winterfell set at Moneyglass. The interesting part: all of them were using spears tipped with dragonglass. The Unsullied will definitely play a big part here.

And the Unsullied aren’t the only people from Essos who are a part of the Battle of Winterfell. Below, we can see men on horseback pass in front of the green screen. We think these are Dothraki riders:

Extras playing Dothraki also shot material at Saintfield, Northern Ireland, the sight of the Battle of the Bastards. Maybe they were filming supplementary stuff for the Battle of Winterfell, or maybe they were shooting something separate. In any case, like the Unsullied, the Dothraki will be a big part of this sequence.

It looks like some of the Dothraki may fall during the battle and become wights, based on this next picture:

Some of those actors are wearing green screen body suits. That’s something HBO has historically done for actors who play wights in various stages of decay. Later, in post-production, special effects technicians will add-in rotting flesh, bone, or whatever.

There are some wights on foot, too. Look at how slowly these extras march toward the camera. That’s a zombie’s gait, if we ever saw one; it reminds me of the opening shot of season 7, with the army of the dead on the march.

And where there are wights, there are probably White Walkers.

Finally, there’s also a shot of what we think is a Northern army:

And also there’s a trebuchet on set:

So that’s a lot of different factions gathered in one place. What do they get up to?

Multiple people will wield flaming swords in the battle against the dead

We don’t know what exactly the team filmed at Magheramorne Quarry, but we have a lot of fascinating footage. Once again, let’s set the mood with a shot full of fog and firelight. Or maybe it’s smoke wafting over from the nearby burning Winterfell?

Here’s an interesting one: in the below video, a group of extras stand stock-still as five or six featured players weave through the mass of people and emerge on the right side of the clump near the end of the video. (You can tell the people on the move aren’t extras because they’re not wearing helmets — that means HBO wants us to see their faces on camera.)

We’re not 100% sure what to make of it, and would love your opinions. It kind of reminds me of the scene from season 6 where Bran, in one of his visions, walks among the army of the dead.

Here’s a simpler video: it’s a sword fight! It looks like one guy is fighting several others. Unfortunately, we can’t conclusively identify anyone.

Speaking of swords, in the below video, one guy is wielding a flaming one.

Of all the characters we know, Beric Dondarrion is the one most closely associated with the flaming sword, although Thoros of Myr could also pull off that trick…sadly, he’s dead. In the next video, we see three people with flaming swords, and they’re all on horseback. Beric must be revealing his trade secrets:

HBO is pulling out all the stops for this battle. The bodies will be piled high.

A lot of people will die during the Battle of Winterfell — Here are their corpses

As with Moneyglass, the ground at Magheramorne Quarry was littered with corpses. Unlike at Moneyglass, someone was able to get up close and personal with the bodies, in this case, a Redditor named WatchersOnMyBalls. The name’s a little silly, but the pictures are incredibly real. Let’s begin:

There are all kinds of corpses at Magheramorne Quarry, and you can click here to see the full suite of pictures. I thought we’d focus on some of the most interesting. To me, the most surprising corpses were the ones bearing the kraken sigil of House Greyjoy:

If this is indeed a battle set outside Winterfell, I didn’t expect Greyjoy soldiers to show up. The drama between Euron, Theon and Yara is still quite unsettled, although we’ll hit that in more detail a little later on.

Anyway, this is more in line with what I was expecting:

These skeletal corpses could be the bodies of wights, or they could be people flash-fried by dragonfire. We’ll have to wait to find out.

Next up, corpse blobs:

HBO likely spreads these things all over the battlefield and covers them in some snow. From a distance, they’ll look like discrete corpses, rather than a bunch of bodies affixed to one plate.

And finally, horse death:

Creepy.

Thank you for taking these photos, WatchersOnMyBalls. God bless you, wherever you are.

Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth will fight the army of the dead side by side

We know a couple things about Jaime Lannister’s season 8 journey. For example, we know he’ll be sporting a new beard:

“Well, he’s on the road for a while,” Coster-Waldau explained in an interview. “Wherever he is going it takes some time, so his hair grows.”

“Wherever he is going” is almost definitely the North; that’s where he was headed at the end of season 7, after he broke up with Cersei. Coster-Waldau also let slip that he worked with Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) in season 8. Since Davos is with Jon Snow, and Jon is headed to Winterfell, that probably means Jaime makes it to Winterfell, too.

And once he’s there, we could be in for a real crowd-pleasing moment: according to reliable fansite Los Siete Reinos, Jaime Lannister and Brienne of Tarth will be involved in this massive battle sequence we’ve been talking about, and will fight the army of the dead together. That will definitely be cathartic.

But there’s some potentially bad news, too. You see, this year, Coster-Waldau was involved in a workplace-related arbitration dispute. At the bottom of the arbitration judge’s ruling, there’s an itemized list of all the income Coster-Waldau has made in the recent past. There are two big takeaways from it: 1) Coster-Waldau is doing just fine, and; 2) He’s only listed as having made money off four episodes of Game of Thrones season 8. Does this mean that Jaime only appears in four out of the coming six episodes? And if not in the remaining two, why not? Might Jaime die in this giant battle?

Nothing’s for certain, but we’re starting to think Jaime doesn’t make it out of Game of Thrones alive.

Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke went to Iceland to film…something

Game of Thrones has visited Iceland several times throughout the years, usually so it can film stuff behind the Wall. It’s where they filmed scenes with the wildlings in season 3, and where Jon Snow and his band of merry men went hunting for wights in season 7. For season 8, Kit Harington (Jon) and Emilia Clarke visited the country briefly, although we’re not sure why.

Usually, when Game of Thrones stars are on the move, they’re careful not to have their picture taken, and at least try to look away from the camera. Here, Harington and Clarke are basically posing for their public. It’s almost like they want to be seen in Iceland. Anyway, that’s as good a reason as any to bring up the fact that some people on the Game of Thrones team have suggested that some scenes were faked to purposefully throw off the paparazzi.

Is that what’s happening here? I have no idea, but if HBO wanted to sow doubt in my mind, it worked.

Moving on, not long after the Iceland visit, this image emerged online:

"New S8 set leak from freefolk"

Is this Clarke and Harington filming a scene in a tent in Iceland? Is it an elaborate scam? I dunno. All we know for sure is that Clarke and Harington definitely went to Iceland. And also, as we can see in the image at the top of this slide, Daenerys’ white fur coat from season 7 is coming back. That’s enough good news to get us to our next topic.

Theon and Yara will reunite

Theon Greyjoy may be the most long-suffering character on a show full of long-suffering characters. When last we saw him, he was pledging to rescue his sister Yara from the clutches of their wicked uncle Euron. According to reliably accurate fansite Watchers on the Walls, brother and sister will reunite in season 8, which is a little bit of much-needed good news for Theon.

However, the circumstances of their reunion are unclear. All we know is that actors Alfie Allen and Gemma Whelan were filming on a set in Banbridge, Northern Ireland with a group of actors playing Ironborn soldiers. Pilou Asbæk, who plays Euron, was nowhere to be seen. Does that mean that Euron is dead by this point? Or perhaps Theon successfully rescues Yara, or maybe she manages to escape? We’ll have to wait for specifics.

Incidentally, Banbridge is near Linen Mill Studios, where the show built the set for Euron Greyjoy’s ship the Silence:

We doubt we’ve seen the last of that dreaded ship. One way or another, the Greyjoy family drama will end in season 8.

We’ll return to Highgarden, the former seat of House Tyrell

After hearing about it for years, we finally visited Highgarden, the bucolic castle occupied by the Tyrells of the Reach, in season 7. Unfortunately, no sooner did we see it than we saw the last living Tyrell, the indomitable Lady Olenna, die…although she really went down swinging, didn’t she?

According to Spanish-language website Cordópolis, we will see Highgarden again in season 8. Or rather, we’ll see the Castillo de Almodóvar del Río, the real-life castle that stood in for Highgarden on the show. But there’s a twist: HBO didn’t film anything new at the Castillo; it’s just going to use some leftover shots from season 7. They may mean we see an establishing shot of Highgarden before we cut inside for a proper scene filmed on a sound stage in Northern Ireland.

Or — and this is the possibility that I like — we may see Highgarden as part of a montage of the great castles of Westeros, now covered in snow as winter tightens its grip on the Seven Kingdoms. After all, the Castillo does look great dusted with snowfall:

Something else that supports this theory: while filming season 8, the crew also briefly returned to Ballintoy Harbour in Northern Ireland, which has stood in for parts of the Iron Islands over the years, to pick up a few shots. It feels to me like they’re collecting shots of far-flung places to cut into a montage, but other interpretations exist.

Cersei’s body double from the Walk of Shame scene is returning

Actress Rebecca Van Cleave played Lena Headey’s body double during Cersei Lannister’s infamous Walk of Shame scene from the season 5 finale. She’s returning for season 8. This info comes straight from casting agency Industry Casting, which enthusiastically tweeted that Van Cleave was in Belfast “shooting her repeat role for Game of Thrones” before quickly deleting the tweet. (Someone got yelled at by HBO.) Van Cleave herself also sent out a few tweets from Belfast.

Now, all this really tells us is that Cersei will have a nude scene in season 8. We don’t know what kind. Another walk of shame seems unlikely, although we can’t rule anything out. Might it be a birthing scene? Cersei was pregnant with Jaime’s baby when we left her in “The Dragon and the Wolf.” Or it could be a sex scene with Euron Greyjoy; those two have been eying each other since the start of season 7. Stay tuned.

HBO returned to Dubrovnik, Croatia to film scenes in King’s Landing

It’s impossible to think of Cersei Lannister without thinking of King’s Landing, and indeed, Westeros’ capitol city will play a huge role in season 8. We’ll detail a lot of what will go down there in a minute, but for now, let’s note that HBO returned to Dubrovnik — which has been standing in for King’s Landing since season 2 — one last time. It shot mostly around Lovrijenac Fortress, which you can see behind Tyrion and Varys above, and Pile Bay, below:

If you recognize this area, it’s because it’s where Sansa and Shae watched boats go by, back in season 3. You know, in simpler times when ice zombies weren’t breathing down everyone’s necks.

Why is Game of Thrones returning to this particular location? We’re not sure. But don’t worry: there are plenty of specific things we can tell you:

Jon Snow will return to King’s Landing

At the end of season 7, Jon Snow was headed home to Winterfell. He won’t stay there. For the first time in the history of the series, star Kit Harington was filmed shooting something in Dubrovnik, meaning that the King in the North is headed back to King’s Landing at some point in season 8:

"Lit Harrington as Aejon from freefolk"

Ah, it’s good to see the Jon Snow curls in full effect.

Above, Harington is at Dubrovnik’s Minčeta Tower, which is part of the city walls. It was built in 1463 and looks like a perfect fit for the architecture of King’s Landing.

There’s also this mysterious shot, of Jon Snow being escorted along the walls by a couple of men in black:

"Jon/Aegon with strange men in black. Wtf? from freefolk"

Are those Night’s Watchmen? Perhaps a few survive the Night King’s assault on the Wall? Or maybe they’re just Northern soldiers who aren’t feeling festive that day.

In any case, Harington wasn’t the only major cast member spotted filming in Dubrovnik…

Jon and Cersei meet in King’s Landing

Let’s move from the Minčeta Tower to Bokar Fortress, another impressive structure on the Dubrovnik city walls:

As you can see, a Lannister flag flies above the fortress, so whatever scene is filmed here takes place when Cersei is still in charge. And indeed, Cersei herself was present, decked out in a badass new outfit that makes her old gowns look subtle:

"The Empress’s New Clothes from freefolk"

That is a queen girded for war.

Other attendees include Cersei’s soldiers, sporting the black uniforms they debuted in season 7…

…and her faithful bodyguard Gregor “the Mountain” Clegane — that’s actor Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson with the dark makeup on his face:

And now for our special guest: joining Lena Headey at Bokar Fortress is Kit Harington. That’s right: Cersei and Jon Snow, meeting one-on-one in King’s Landing:

"Why are they filming right in front of a window? Speculation time: I´m thinking on dragons from freefolk"

That’s showrunner Dan Weiss talking to the both of them, FYI.

How does this scene come about? We’re not sure. Perhaps Jon, after having been defeated by the White Walkers at Winterfell, retreats south and tries to take refuge in King’s Landing, which would put him at Cersei’s mercy. We can’t wait to find out more.

The Hound and the Mountain will throw down, probably

Because we mentioned the Mountain, let’s hit this topic real quick. For years, Game of Thrones fans have been looking forward to Cleganebowl, a long-anticipated death match between Sandor and Gregor Clegane, the Hound and the Mountain. The show certainly seemed to set it up in the season 7 finale, when the Hound confronted his much-changed brother at the Dragonpit:

"Remember me? Yeah, you do. You’re even fucking uglier than I am now. What did they do to you? Doesn’t matter. It’s not how it ends for you, brother. You know who’s coming for you. You’ve always known."

Them’s fighting words, literally.

Anyway, we’ve gotten some juicy hints that this long-awaited confrontation will finally go down in season 8, mostly courtesy of Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, who plays the Mountain. To start, he told a fan that his favorite scene to film happens in season 8:

"[NO SPOILERS] Hafthor Bjornsson (The Mountain) says his favorite scene to film in all of GoT is in season 8! from gameofthrones"

Any scene to beat the Mountain’s brutal defeat of Oberyn Martell back in season 4 will surely stop the show.

In addition, Björnsson told Fox News that season 8 was “the hardest season that I have done ever for Game of Thrones. It was the most difficult. Like, physically and mentally for me.”

For a few seasons now, the Mountain has mostly stood by Cersei’s side, intimidating but inactive (with at least one very entertaining exception). It sounds like that’s going to change in the final six episodes. Get hype.

HBO built an ENORMOUS King’s Landing set in Belfast

A couple slides back, we said that HBO filmed some King’s Landing scenes in Dubrovnik, and that’s true. But they also built a stupidly big King’s Landing set on a backlot at Titanic Studios in Belfast. And I am not exaggerating when I call it stupid big. This thing is so massive HBO is planning to preserve it as a tourist attraction.

It’s hard to convey the hugeness of this set in words, so let’s try pictures. Here’s what it looked like when construction began…

…and here’s what it looks like finished (be sure to click the image below to zoom in for a better view):

The crew built a whole city street. At one end there’s the gate…

…and at the other end, the front of the Red Keep:

In between, there are all manner of buildings. Notice the stately white tower to the right of the center of this picture…

…and this cool dome, which may be the top of a sept:

There are plenty of props on set, too, like this massive trebuchet…

…and this huge crossbow, which is likely an updated version of the one Bronn used to shoot Drogon out of the air in “The Spoils of War”:

All that, and HBO has built even more set we can’t see inside Titanic Studios itself:

Holy god, you guys, this thing is big. But why would HBO build it in the first place? In past seasons, they’ve always just filmed King’s Landing scenes in real-life cities. Why spend the money and time to build a ginormous set?

Dragons will attack King’s Landing

Why would HBO build an enormous King’s Landing set? The short answer is so they can blow a bunch of it up.

According to Watchers on the Wall, King’s Landing will be attacked by dragons in season 8. We don’t know if Daenerys will firebomb the place with Drogon and Rhaegal or if the Night King will assault it from atop Zombie Viserion — maybe both — but we know it’s going to happen. And the dragons will be big. Below is a picture of an enormous dragon rig near the King’s Landing set, larger than any the show has used before:

We even have an educated guess as to how the dragons will approach. In an audio commentary on the Game of Thrones season 7 Blu-ray boxset, some of the show’s special effects wizards mentioned that it was very important that Cersei’s map room — the one where she paced back and forth hatching plans in season 7 — have an open ceiling. That will pay off, they said, “in an upcoming episode,” although they wouldn’t say how. This is a guess, but we think it would make for a great moment if Cersei or someone else looked up from the map room and saw an unwelcomed visitor in the sky. Remember that vision Bran had of a dragon flying over King’s Landing way back in season 4? It’s time for that to come true.

But back to the dragons f*cking up the city: the King’s Landing set went through some serious wear and tear. For example, here’s what the front gate looked like before the dragons got to it…

…and here’s what it’ll look like after:

And remember that dome from the last slide? Well, it’s going to go up in flames…

…and be left a ruined husk:

Below, HBO has lit a fire in front of a green screen, probably so it can superimpose it over a building or a group of soldiers or something later:

"Big fire burning in front of the green screen at KL set in Belfast from freefolk"

Here, thick smoke pours from the set:

And here it looks more like fog. Does that suggest White Walkers?

White Walkers, dragons, revolt…whatever happens to King’s Landing in season 8, it’s going to go through it, and will never be the same.

The Unsullied and Dothraki also visit King’s Landing

Believe it or not, we’re not done describing all the terrible things that will happen to King’s Landing next year. In addition to dragons and White Walkers, it may also be assaulted by good old fashioned armies. Below, you can see Unsullied and Dothraki soldiers gathering outside the set:

Granted, it’s possible that by this point Cersei, Daenerys and Jon Snow have teamed up and are fighting the White Walkers together, but it’s just as likely that Cersei won’t see reason and Daenerys has commanded her armies to assault the city walls. After all, whoever is outside King’s Landing seems to have siege towers and siege ladders, which they probably wouldn’t need if the gates were open to them in friendship:

As far as we can tell, the tower and ladder are covered in animal hides. That would prevent the besieged from setting the siege engines on fire, perhaps with fire arrows. Below, we can see a few arches on one of the gate towers:

"Archers on the left tower!!!!!! from freefolk"

Pray for King’s Landing.

Ghost will have “a fair amount of screen time”

The last time we saw Ghost, Jon Snow’s direwolf, he was raising his head off the floor as his master was resurrected from the dead. Sansa mentioned him once in season 7, but he never actually showed up onscreen. That is way too much time to go without sight of Jon’s most consistent companion, but according to special effects supervisor Joe Bauer, that’s all about to change. “Oh, you’ll see him again,” Bauer told The Huffington Post. “He has a fair amount of screen time in Season 8. He does show up.”

Well, thank goodness for that. According to Bauer, the reason the direwolves aren’t as prominent in the show as they are in the books is because they’re very tricky to render from a special effects perspective. “The direwolves are tough because you don’t want to get them wrong, so we end up always shooting real wolves and doing a scaling trick with them, but the real wolves only behave in certain ways.” There was actually a Ghost scene written for season 7, but it got cut.

But we can leave that dark time behind. We look forward to seeing Ghost rip out a few undead throats come April.

What do the Stark sisters get up to season 8?

We don’t know much in the way of specifics regarding what Arya and Sansa Stark will do in the final season, but we do have some juicy sound bites to chew on. Take what Maisie Williams (Arya) told The Guardian. “[The final six episodes are] quite big for me,” she said. “I had a lot more to do.”

Williams also described the last scene she filmed as “beautiful.”

"I ended on the perfect scene. I was alone –- shocker! Arya’s always bloody alone."

Now, we can’t tell if she’s talking about the final scene Arya is in or the final scene she shot — Game of Thrones doesn’t film scenes in order — but it’s interesting either way.

Then there’s the Instagram post where she said goodbye to the show:

You say goodbye to Arya with a picture of some bloody tennis shoes? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

We also know that Williams took combat training classes to prepare for the final season. Putting all of this together, we expect Arya to be in the thick of things in a major way, come April.

As for Sansa, star Sophie Turner has dropped a few quotes about the Lady of Winterfell coming into her own as a leader:

"The past few seasons for her and the whole series for her, she’s kind of been somewhat lost as a matter of where she wants to be, who she wants to be, who she wants to surround herself with, and this season she is very very self-assured. She knows what she wants. She knows what she stands for. She knows who she wants to be around, and she faces threats to that this season. But, well, we’ll see how that goes."

Indeed we will.

HBO returned to the cave where Melisandre birthed her shadow baby

In season 2, Davos Seaworth smuggled the red witch Melisandre to a cave underneath Storm’s End, and watched her give birth to a shadow assassin in one of the series’ most enduring what-the-f**k-is-happening moments ever. That scene was filmed at Cushendun Caves in Northern Ireland. The crew returned there for season 8.

As you can see above, it looks like things are happening both in the cave and on the nearby beach. And that’s about all we know. Is Game of Thrones returning to the same cave where Melisandre birthed her shadow baby years ago? Is that writhing piece of nightmare fuel getting a little brother or sister? Or will this stand in for another cave, of which there are plenty in Westeros?

Part of the reason we’re clinging to this information is because we know precious little about what Melisandre will get up to in the final six episodes. I mean, we know she’ll be in them, but we could have guessed that. When last we saw Melisandre, she told Varys that she was leaving Westeros for a while, but that she would return one last time. “I have to die in this strange country, just like you.”

Yikes. We can’t wait to see how that turns out.

There are a few characters we’re pretty sure aren’t coming back

Game of Thrones has a ton of characters, and with six episodes left, there may not be time to feature all of them. Based on what the cast members have said, we’d be shocked if these three turned up in season 8:

• Edmure Tully: “I have no idea [if Edmure is returning],” actor Tobias Menzies told Digital Spy in the middle of filming. “He’s obviously somewhere in a prison, he’s still around alive somewhere. They’re pretty stingy with their information and I’ve not heard anything from them. I feel like they have so many stories to tie up, whether that’s a story they’ll want to go back to, I don’t know.” This was long after all the cast members had gathered for a season 8 table read, and if Menzies hadn’t heard anything by then, we don’t expect Edmure to show back up.
• Meera Reed: Like Menzies, actor Ellie Kendrick said she hadn’t heard anything from HBO about whether her character was coming back. “I wait for the phone to ring and then I find out, but it hasn’t rung so I don’t know,” she told Digital Spy. “I’ll find out whether I am or not at some point, but for now I haven’t been notified so I’m yet to discover.” Again, this was after the cast table read, and if she wasn’t a part of that, we doubt she’s a part of the final six episodes.
• Tycho Nestoris: This one’s easy. Mark Gatiss, who plays Iron Banker Tycho Nestoris, up and told Short List that his character would not be returning. “I’m not in [season 8], so I guess I survive,” he said. “Although they might just mention offhand that I’ve had my head bitten off by a dragon off-screen or something.”

Just so this slide isn’t a complete downer, there is some good news about a character who wasn’t on the show for years but who returned in season 7: Gendry, Robert Baratheon’s bastard son. “[I’ve filmed] a fair bit,” actor Joe Dempsie told Digital Spy. “I’ve done well out of it this year, for sure.”

A lot of cast members gathered near the Dragonpit for a mysterious, protracted shoot

In the season 7 finale, over a dozen Game of Thrones characters met in the Dragonpit of King’s Landing to discuss the White Walker threat. Filmed at the Roman ruins of Italica near Seville, Spain, the Dragonpit scene featured the largest gathering of characters in years, and it looks like history may repeat itself.

That’s the crew turning the ruins into the Dragonpit, once again. What’s more, a lot of cast members were spotted in Seville around this time, including: Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Isaac Hempstead Wright (Bran Stark), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), Maisie Williams (Arya Stark), Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth), Conleth Hill (Varys), Jacob Anderson (Grey Worm), Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister), Nicolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Joe Dempsie (Gendry), Vladimir Furdik (the Night King), Lino Facioli (Robin Arryn), Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H’ghar), and Faye Marsay (the Waif), along with showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff. There were also Unsullied extras spotted on set. Clearly, something big was going down.

It’s hard to be sure what, though, which might be by design. We suspect that some of those actors were there as plants, with Wlaschiha and Marsay in particular standing out like sore thumbs. We seriously doubt Jaqen H’ghar and the Waif are going to show up in King’s Landing. HBO may be trying to throw us off here.

But what are they trying to hide? Well, we have one more SPOILER for you, but be warned: this is a big one.

There’s a very good chance Tyrion will die

Before we begin, we need to stress that this is not 100% certain. However, there’s an increasingly large body of evidence indicating that season 8 will be Tyrion Lannister’s last stand. And depending how much of this you believe, the manner of his death is a real shocker.

First, let’s prove up the death itself, starting with star Peter Dinklage’s own comments. “I think [Tyrion] was given a very good conclusion,” he told Vulture. “No matter what that is — death can be a great way out.”

“Death can be a great way out.” Way to kick the hornet’s nest, Dinklage.

Now, that alone probably wouldn’t be enough to give us concern. Dinklage could have just been throwing it out there as a suggestion. We got a little more worried over what special effects producer Steve Kullback said when celebrating his 2018 Creative Arts Emmy win for his work on episode 706, “Beyond the Wall.” Skip to 1:23 for the big moment:

“And we can’t tell you in what episode Tyrion dies…or doesn’t,” Kullback says. Notice how all of Kullback’s colleagues raise their eyebrows when he lets this bit of info slip. Sam Conway, the guy in the kilt, even slaps his forehead. Joe Bauer then grabs the mic, but the damage may have been done.

Then there’s Frikidoctor, a YouTuber with an excellent track record for forecasting future episodes of Game of Thrones. According to him, in the final episode of the series, Tyrion will be put on trial for treason in the Dragonpit. This trial would be conducted by people loyal to Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen, but not Cersei. (Purportedly, this is the sequence the crew filmed at the ruins of Italica). At the conclusion of the trial, Tyrion is executed.

But why is Tyrion on trial in the first place? What could he do in the next six episodes that makes Jon or Daenerys want to execute him? In another video (translated here), Frikidoctor suggests that Tyrion will destroy King’s Landing in an attempt to stop the Night King and his army of the dead, the caveat being that there are still hundreds of thousands of people inside.

There’s a bunch to unpack here. If you believe these spoilers, you have to ask yourself how Tyrion would destroy King’s Landing. My best guess would be setting off casks of wildfire placed under the city either by Aerys Targaryen years ago or Cersei just recently, her destruction of the Sept of Baelor having worked out pretty well for her. But again, despite Frikidoctor’s solid track record, there may be nothing to these spoilers. You can judge for yourself.

The final season of Game of Thrones airs in April. Get ready.

To stay up to date on everything Game of Thrones, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels