The first look at Game of Thrones Season 7 is finally here

Let the countdown to summer 2017 begin

If there was any doubt that this season of Game of Thrones was going to be the biggest yet, the sight of Cersei and Jamie Lannister standing on a huge map of Westeros clinched it for us. The official trailer for season 7 has finally dropped and the internet’s all in a tizzy over it, dissecting each and every frame for even the hint of a spoiler.

Launched in anticipation of the series’ July 16 release date, the trailer travels from faction to faction spread across the fantasy world. We get to see all the main players of the season (with the exception of the White Walkers), plotting their machinations towards the throne. There was however no sign of Ed Sheeran's guest cameo.

While the entire trailer is an end to end hype feast, there are a few things to get really excited about. The epic battles and sight of Daenaerys’ dragons are always spine tingling experiences, but there are some plot points the trailer shows us glimpses of.

There’s no telling who’s going to team up this time around, although we’re hoping to see Dany and Jon join forces. However, Littlefinger pouring words of poison into Sansa Stark’s ear is a worrying omen she may turn on her brother. Jon Snow snatching the man by the throat and slamming him against a wall doesn't look good either.

A quick flash of Daenaerys’ Unsullied army fighting against soldiers wearing crimson Lannister colours also suggests that we’ll get to see the two most powerful women of the series go head to head in the six part season. On a much lighter note though, we’re just happy to see that Greyworm and Missandei seem to finally be moving forwards with their relationship...

That all said and done, there's a bigger question to be asked. Is Gendry still rowing?

On December 6 we wrote...

BIG Game of Thrones Season 7 news, guys.

The first official look at season 7 has been released by HBO in a teaser trailer titled What's Coming to HBO in 2017, teasing various new season's that are coming to the network next year. As well as Jon Snow and Sansa Stark, Arya Stark also makes an appearance, so we're looking forward to whatever her return to Westeros will bring.

It might be a pretty fleeting glimpse of what we can expect next summer, but we're still very excited about the show's comeback. It's been too long...

On 24th October, we wrote...

*SPOILER ALERT*: After that tear-jerker of an episode when Jon Snow reunited with his half-sister Sansa Stark, the internet has been going wild speculating about more family get togethers in Game of Thrones next season.

And while we now have confirmation that there is at least one which is definitely happening, it might not be the family reunion we had in mind.

Thanks to the eagle eyed contributors over at Game of Thrones fan site Winter is Coming, we can now see pictures leaked from the season 7 set showing Daenerys and Jon Snow meeting. Don't believe us? See it for yourself....

Since we've only recently discovered that Jon Snow is in fact the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, this makes Daenerys technically Jon's aunt. Which for a lot of fans is kind of weird as they'd been hoping for a Jon-Dany romance. Although that could well happen what with the Targaryen's being famous for incestuous marriage.

Either way, it looks like we can expect a powering pairing to appear in Games of Thrones next season (and we literally can't wait).

On 9th October 2016 we wrote...

So we may not have been a particular fan of his character (he was kind of the worst, right?), but despite Jack Gleeson not appearing in Game of Thrones next season, the actor still seems to have a pretty good idea of what’s going on.

In fact, the actor who played Joffrey Baratheon just came out with the most amazing theory about how Game of Thrones is going to end – and it totally blew our minds.

WARNING: If you’re not up to date, look away now or you can expect some serious spoilers.

When we last left Westeros, the White Walkers were making some pretty good progress in their efforts to wipe out the wildlings north of the Wall. At this rate, we can expect to see the killer zombie army taking over the Seven Kingdoms in no time…

http://gph.is/1FWoD6I

But who will be on the Iron Throne to save everyone? Well, according to Jack Gleeson, no one. Talking to fans at Comic Con in New York, Jack revealed that he thinks no one will end up on the Iron Throne because the seat itself it actually pivotal to the plot.

Playing on the fact that the Iron Throne is said to be forged from swords made of Valyrian steel – one of the only weapons which can kill a White Walker. According to Jack, the Iron Throne will be melted down in order to make a shed load of weapons to take on those creepy snow monsters.

Clever, hey?

Although Jack does seem to have forgotten one important thing – Valyrian steel isn’t the only thing that can kill a White Walker.

Dragonfire can also take them down and it just so happens that there’s a certain bad-ass queen and her three dragons currently winging their way to Westeros. Guess we’ll have to wait to see how Daenerys does in her quest for the Iron Throne before we know if Jack is right...

http://gph.is/22Y8FSX

On 10th September we wrote...

***SPOILER ALERT***

If you haven’t seen Season 6, look away now because we may have just stumbled on a massive clue as to what is about to happen in Game of Thrones next season.

Thanks to a set leak, the eagle-eyed fans at Watchers on the Wall spotted an epic battle scene being filmed at sea near Belfast featuring the all Greyjoys i.e. Yara, Theon and their uncle Euron (you know, the one we saw murdering their father Balon last season).

According to Watchers on the Wall, we can expect some high sea drama as Euron is rumoured to capture one of the Greyjoy siblings – and we’re willing to bet its poor old Theon. You know, because he hasn’t suffered enough already.

It’s set to be a big season for Euron all round actually as the rumours report that he’s set to team up with the new Queen Cersei and even take down one of the Sand Snakes in another epic fight scene.

Move over Sansa and Littlefinger – it looks like Cersei and Euron set to be the new GoT power couple. Sounds like one seriously dangerous duo to us…

On 1st September we wrote…

Game of Thrones has a brand new addition to its cast in Season 7 - and we're really looking forward to it.

Oscar-winning actor Jim Broadbent will be joining the show's lineup

The Bridget Jones's Diary and Harry Potter star will make his Game of Thrones debut in Season 7 next summer, Entertainment Weekly reports.

As yet, we're not exactly sure who Broadbent will play – we only know that his role is going to be 'significant'. We can only speculate which GoT family he'll be linked to.

Watch this space...

On 30th August, we wrote...

When we heard the news that there were only two more series of Game of Thrones left, we were pretty distraught.

And then when we then heard that they would only be made up of 13 episodes in total – cue full on melt-down.

So maybe we needed some tough love courtesy of Maisie Williams. The actress, who plays assassin extraordinaire Arya Stark on the show, made some very good points in an interview with Variety.

According to Maisie, ‘it’s time to wrap this up’.

‘Good things must come to an end or they’re not good anymore. It doesn’t last forever and we’ve done what we came to do, it’s time to wrap this up, and it will have the ending it was always supposed to have,’ she explained.

Ok, so maybe she’s right. Nothing is worse than a series which limps to its miserable end. But still, did the producers really have to deprive us of seven hours of GoT? It seems a bit harsh to kill it off and not give us the full ten episodes per season.

Well, yes, according to Maisie: ‘This show makes a lot of money, and it would be easy for HBO to be like ‘we’re gonna do four more seasons and we’re gonna extend them to 12 episodes.’ I really respect David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] for holding their ground and for HBO to be like “no… we’re gonna tell this story and we’re gonna end it and that’ll be final.”’

Urgh fine. Begrudgingly, we’ll admit she’s probably right. Not that it’s going to be easy to fill the hole GoT will leave in our lives...

On 25th August, we wrote...

We have some news about Jason Momoa, aka Game of Thrones' Khal Drogo.

The last time we saw Khal Drogo was of course way back in the season 2 finale, Valar Morghulis, during Daenerys' vision quest. We've missed him ever since then - but recent pictures have got us speculating as to whether he could be returning from the dead.

Recent Instagram pictures have shown him out partying in Northern Ireland with the show's creators, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. Super fans will know that Northern Ireland is basically the homeland of Game of Thrones - so why is Jason there?

Does this mean Benioff and Weiss are planning a return for Khal Drogo? Is he coming back from the dead?? And will he reunite with Dany???? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.

We have everything crossed for a return. Just imagine.

On 23rd August, we wrote...

It might not be airing until next summer, but we’re already counting down the days until the Game of Thrones next season hits our screens.

But now we’re even more excited thanks to Maisie Williams (a.k.a Arya Stark) who recently took to twitter to give an infuriating teaser about what’s to come next season.

Telling fans that ‘nothing will prepare them’ for what is about to happen and that ‘sh*t gets real’, we can’t wait to see Arya put her newly-acquired assassination skills to use on all of those who have made life as a Stark so miserable.

After all, revenge is a dish best served cold…and as a pie if Arya Stark is anything to go by.

On 19th August, we wrote...

We might have reason to be concerned about what's going to happen to Sansa Stark next season. Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, recently spoke to Variety and has this to say about the plans for her character.

'I actually don't know [what could happen] because of the way last season left off. There are so many options. She could run with Littlefinger and become a villain and sadistic. Or she could also team up with her brother Jon.'

Erm, we really hope Sansa isn't about to go rogue on us.

Sophie also discussed the possibility that Sansa will face a (classic) gruesome Game of Thrones death. And how exactly does she think Sansa would meet her maker, we hear you ask?

'A long, slow episode-lasting death, where it's just me and no one else. And it's going to be the last episode of the last season.'

We certainly hope that's not the case!

On 8th August, we wrote...

We've known that Game of Thrones is officially ending for a little while now, so the natural reaction is to ask whether or not there will be a spin off to fill the massive void in our lives once season 8 is over.

And now, we finally have an answer. Sort of.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, HBO's president of production, Casey Bloys, said: 'We've talked about it. It's something I'm not opposed to, but of course it has to make sense creatively. I'm not sure that [Benioff and Weiss, the show's creators] could really wrap their heads around it when they're just about to start production [on season 7].

'It's a pretty intense production, they're about to start production soon. I'm open to it. The guys weren't opposed to it, but there's no concrete plans at this point.'

If the idea of a spin off doesn't excite you enough, it looks like George R. R. Martin may have another show in the works, too. In a blog post titled The Wild Cards are coming, Martin confirmed that The Wild Cards, a series of anthologies and mosaic novels he edits with Melinda M. Snodgrass, will be adapted for television. So that's even more of the great GRRM's work we have to look forward to.

We can still live in hope for a Game of Thrones spin off though, right? On 19th July, we wrote...

It looks like we're going to have to wait longer than we thought for the next season of Game of Thrones (NOOOOOOOOOO).

It's now been confirmed that the season 7 premiere will air later than usual, in the summer of 2017. In a statement released by HBO, president of production Casey Bloys said that producers 'felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing.

'Instead of the show's traditional spring debut, we're moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.'

Digital Spy previously reported that show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss revealed that the (shorter) seventh season won't start until later in 2017 - so we've got a bit of wait before it's back on our screens.

'We don't have an air date yet, but this year will probably be a little bit later. We're starting a bit later because at the end of this season, 'Winter is here' - and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes any more' they said in the UFC Unfiltered podcast earlier in July.

'So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim grey weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot.'

It's fair enough, really - but what *are* we supposed to do with ourselves until then?

On 29th June, we wrote...

It's official: Game of Thrones is ending. It's really ending.

Show bosses had already confirmed that the next season(s) would be shorter, but now we have a much more specific time frame for how long the show is going to continue to run.

In an interview with Deadline, the show's creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confirmed that the series' total length would be 73 hours. Seeing as we've already had six series of ten one hour episodes, we can expect two slightly shorter series totalling 13 hours.

What on earth are we going to do with ourselves after that?

The show has just aired its season six finale, which according to Entertainment Weekly pulled in 8.9 million US viewers.

If you're not all caught up yet then don't read on for spoiler reasons.

SERIOUSLY, DO NOT READ ON.

You have been warned...

Last chance.

Okay, go.

'We've been talking about the end, from the beginning' Benioff said in the interview. 'It's a strange phenomenon, we're in this territory where you are walking on your own and can't rely on the written material any more.

'Daenerys is finally coming back to Westeros; Jon Snow is king of The North and Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne. And we know the Night King is up there, waiting for all of them. The pieces are on the board now.

'Once we get to the final end game, we've got very specific ideas that have grown organically over the past six plus years about where everything will end up.'

Although we would love for the show to run forever, Benioff says it's right that the show ends while it's in its prime: 'We want to leave while all the people watching this show are really into it. Get out at a high point and not have it be, well thank god that's over.'

Let the countdown to Game of Thrones next season begin.