HBO reveals premiere date for final season of 'Game of Thrones' in greatest-hits teaser

Ethan Alter
·Senior Writer, Yahoo Entertainment


It’s the end of Westeros as we know it and we feel … totally psyched. HBO revealed today that Game of Thrones will start its final season in April 2019 — exactly eight years after the series premiered in April 2011, and went on to conquer the world.

The announcement trailer notably didn’t contain any new footage from Season 8, all of which is presumably being kept under lock and key at the HBO branch of the Maesters’ Citadel. (Although one scene apparently escaped the vault earlier this year; Drogon must have been sleeping on the job that day.) What we do know is that the final year will only consist of six episodes, some of which may exceed the show’s traditional hour-long runtime. (Though none will be two hours, as initially rumored.)

In place of new scenes, the teaser offers a roll call of some of the many, many casualties in the soon-to-conclude game of thrones, from poor Ned Stark’s head-chop to Joffrey Baratheon’s breathtaking exit. We also glimpsed footage of some of the surviving players, including the four leading candidates to take the Iron Throne: the ferocious Queen Cersei, the undead Night King and allies-turned-lovers Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, whose intimate relations my soon be curtailed by the revelation that they are, in fact, related.

The minute-long trailer also revisits some of the show’s biggest and best battles as a precursor to the epic clashes that are in store for Season 8. One bit of warfare that reportedly lasted for 55 days, a new record for a show that’s always had a famously grueling production schedule. But amidst the bloodshed, there will still be room for the quite character moments that fans relish. Maisie Williams has already teased that her fan favorite alter ego, Arya Stark, arrives at a “beautiful” ending. We’re hoping that means she completes her “kill list” before retiring from the faceless assassin game.

Twitter is already melting down at the prospect of a five-month wait until the arrival of the Westerosi winter.

And some aspiring Cassandras seized the opportunity to advance their own theories and hopes about what’s in store for the final year.

No question: This final battle #ForTheThrone is going to be one wild ride.

The final season of Game of Thrones will premiere in April 2019.

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