Game of Thrones: Everything you need to know about season eight

Game of Thrones has been a part of our lives since its premiere on April 17, 2011. The show has now entered its eighth and final season and the number of theories and rumors surrounding the plotline are running rampant. The show’s cast has garnered an enormous amount of success over the years, introducing us to new names as well as reacquainting us with some familiar faces.
The show has collected 47 Primetime Emmy Awards as a collective, with Peter Dinklage receiving not only three Primetime Emmy Awards himself, but a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister. As for season eight, we had to wait a year and eight months between seasons and this final hurrah, leading to a lot of anticipation and that much more speculation. Season eight is expected to be the most highly rated season of the show, and as such, we have put together everything you need to know and expect from this epic final season.

Daenerys’ arrival at Winterfell

The very first episode of the season show’s Daenerys arriving at Winterfell along with Jon Snow and the rest of her unsullied troops. Daenerys was convinced by Jon that the first and most important threat was the army of the dead coming from the Wall.

Her welcome at Winterfell was not as warm as she would have liked it to be, particularly by Jon’s sister (who is not actually his sister as we learned in season seven), Sansa.

Daenerys and Sansa’s introduction

Speaking of Sansa and Daenerys’ introduction to one another – Sansa greets Daenerys as she walks into Winterfell with poised, albeit cool, respect. The teaser to the last season shows us the reunion between Jon, Sansa, and Daenerys, with Brienne of Tarth never too far behind.

Seeing how these two powerful and stubborn women will face off with one another is going to be a quiet power struggle that will be done wisely as these two know better than to ruffle feathers. At the end of the day, the most important thing is, first and foremost, surviving the Night King.

The connection between the Night King and Bran

The Night King making his way to Winterfell is a huge part of this season’s premise. There are many theories out there as to how and if the Night King will win the war that he and his army are bringing upon Winterfell, but what we do know is that he is after Bran Stark.

The connection between the Night King and Bran is evident yet not clear and this season we are going to finally uncover the link and see if this will be to the detriment or benefit of the King. The Night King is set on killing Bran, therefore, time will tell if he succeeds.

Start of filming

The eighth season of Game of Thrones may have premiered on April 14th, 2019, but it started filming all the way back in October 2017. Filming of this season went through the summer of 2018, and considering the season is only six episodes long, it is a great indicator as to the quality and length of each episode this time around.

The press wanted to know as much information as possible from the actors when they were interviewing them about season eight, unfortunately for them, not even the cast had any clue as to what would be the destiny of their character.

End of filming

Filming officially wrapped in July 2018. It was Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, who let the world know this fun fact as she posted a meaningful and graphic post on her Instagram account. In her post, Maisie portrayed her bloody sneakers with a caption saying goodbye to the filming location, her character, and the show itself.

It is hard to imagine how emotional it must have been for Maisie and the other actors, having to say goodbye to a show that has been a part of their lives for so many years. We will all be re-watching past episodes to combat the feeling of loss.

The battle scene took the longest

As is to be expected, the battle scene at Winterfell between the White Walkers and the living took the most amount of time to film. The cast and crew shot the various battle scenes over the course of 55 days.

This number reflects the scenes at Winterfell, where studio filming took place only afterward. The set itself was enlarged to hold the number of actors staged as warriors, as well as the fight scenes within the palace walls.

Sneak peek

Several days prior to the April 2019 premiere date of season eight, HBO posted a short snippet of members of the cast arriving on set to start filming that very season. This would have been the first time the cast would have seen each other since the previous season, so the reunion was a sweet one.

Stars like Kit Harington, Sophie Turner, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Gwendoline Christie met up after a long hiatus on the Winterfell set.

Multiple endings

In order to make sure that there was no way that the real ending was going to get leaked prior to its screening, Casey Bloys of HBO Programming stated that there were several options for the ending of the show and that all were to be filmed as backups to the original just in case one were to get leaked.

None of the actors yet know which ending will be shown to the public.

Season eight budget

The budget for each episode of season eight is no less than $15 million. This budget is the highest per episode since the show’s inception, with season two costing $6 million an episode, and season six costing approximately $10 million an episode.

The other seasons of the show were 12 one-hour episodes in length, whereas season eight is a mere six episodes long yet each episode is between one hour and an hour and a half.

George R. R. Martin’s opinion

The author of the book series behind the show, A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin has said that to him it feels like no time has passed and that it is as if they had just begun filming.

He is still in the process of finishing up the final book of the series (despite the show going off book since season four). For Martin, Westeros is his other home and he intends on staying there.

Actor’s lines

In order to prevent leakage of scenes by unknown sources, some of the major scenes in the season are not written down in a script but are rather spoken to the actor through an earpiece right before the scene is to be filmed.

Kit Harrington and Sophie Turner said that they did indeed get scripts but Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stated otherwise; leading us to believe that it would depend on the scene as an indicator of if one got a script or not.

Fake scenes

Due to the fact that some of the scenes are outside and it is not always possible to prevent paparazzi from finding them or snapping photos, producers decided it would be wise to shoot fake scenes so as to deter anyone from finding out the storyline before the show aired.

One of the members of production said that the photographers were horrible to deal with and were everywhere so they had to go to extreme measures.

Need to know basis

Just like the script, the shooting schedule was also under lock and key. The script and the shooting schedule are located on a supremely secure program that the actor is then given access to.

With a show such as this one, the security of the content comes at the highest regard since a true leak can mean rating devastation for the network, not to mention ruins the show for the fans who would not spoil it for themselves otherwise.

Dothraki connection

In Belfast, where the majority of the show is filmed, people have noticed the addition of three structures that look like huts. Knowing what we know about the show and the various locations in the kingdom, these huts resemble possible living situations for the Dothraki people.

This clue led fans to believe that the Dothraki people will be making a comeback in season eight. The context of their spotlight in the show has yet to be determined.

Miguel Sapochnik

Director Miguel Sapochnik, who was the director behind episodes such as The Winds of Winter and Battle of the Bastards, in previous seasons, is returning for season eight. Another cinematographer posted an image on Instagram with Sapochnik and stated how good it was to have the band back together of sorts.

This makes complete sense since there is set to be a battle scene after battle scene during this final season of the show.

David Nutter

Another director returned for season eight – David Nutter. The actor who plays Sam Tarly, Jon Bradley, was interviewed by the Huffington Post and said that Nutter was indeed returning for the last hurrah. Nutter was the director behind episodes like The Rains of Castamere which contained The Red Wedding therein.

Considering both Sapochnik and Nutter working on season eight, we are sure to see epic scenes and twists and turns that are not on our list of theories.

Dan Weiss and David Benioff

The majority of Game of Thrones has been directed by both Dan Weiss and David Benioff. The two have been integral to the shows success and quality from the beginning. It is, therefore, no surprise that they are the two who were in charge of the very final episode of the whole show.

Giving these two the honor and responsibility to finish the show off as they see fit was something the cast and crew were very much on board with.

New faces

There are two new faces for the eighth season of Game of Thrones. The first new face belongs to a girl who is aptly named Northern Girl and is eight years old. The second new face is that of a boy who we do not know the name of but is slightly older than the girl and whose role has yet to be determined to the public.

The fact that these two were added has a lot of meaning behind it at this later stage in the show.

Northern sentry role

Another new role for this last season was given to actor Frank Blake. Blake is set to play the role of a Northern sentry. The role has been confirmed yet the impact on the storyline is what has yet to be determined.

Any new role added at this point is a rather big deal considering everything done on this show has a deeper meaning. Every little detail is thought through and so we are sure this means something big.

Marc Rissman

Cersei’s storyline shows her remaining in King’s Landing awaiting either the White Walkers or the living to come for her from the North. She is not concerned as she has command over The Golden Company, an army she purchased with the help of the Iron Bank.

Actor Marc Rissman plays the role of Harry Strickland, the commander of The Golden Company, which means we will be seeing a lot of him in the upcoming episodes.

Sarra

Actress Danielle Galligan is set to play the role of Sarra. The role was listed on her talent profile before being quickly removed (someone was a little too quick to post). The character of Sarra is thought to be Sarra Frey, also known as Walder Frey’s granddaughter.

Her character was portrayed during the red wedding but was played by a different actress at the time. How she fits in remains to be determined but we are sure Arya has a say about it.

Direwolf

During season one of Game of Thrones, the Stark children were given three dire wolves. One was killed while two remain – Jon and Arya’s direwolves. Jon’s direwolf is said to show himself far more in this season.

While Arya’s direwolf who has been missing since many seasons ago is thought to return to Winterfell and to Arya’s embrace. The meaning behind the dire wolf return also has a hidden purpose which we are sure to find out.

Arya’s participation

For the longest part of the show, Arya has been all over the place learning how to fight and master her skills. It is thought that there is a purpose for all of this learning and it is not only to kill the people on her list.

She has been preparing for something far larger and far more important than just people who were evil to her and her family. Her weapons of choice have a lot to say about who her true target is.