See ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6 Photos

We may be in the thick of winter now, but spring is coming … and with it, the highly anticipated return of Game of Thrones. Even though this will be the show’s sixth season, it’ll be the first year where the series is parting ways with George R.R. Martin’s companion book series, which remains stalled on the fifth novel, A Dance With Dragons. That also means that, for the first time in the show’s history, both readers and nonreaders are on the same, um, page headed into a fresh round of episodes. So for now, the only people who truly know whether, say, the temporarily dethroned queen, Daenerys, gets back to Meereen or how Jon Snow comes back from his hopefully short-lived death are showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and for now they’re not telling. What we do know about the new season is that all the characters you love (Tyrion, Arya and Brienne) are back, along with the ones you love to hate (Ramsay!!!), as well as a few folks we haven’t seen in a while (welcome back, Bran!) Click through this gallery of recently released Season 6 photos and feel all warm inside as Winter approaches. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead)  

Game of Thrones premieres April 24 at 9 p.m. on HBO.