Game of Thrones actor Iain Glen commented earlier this week on how impressive he found the quality of the show’s Season 7 scripts to be. Since then, other actors of the series have commented on how Season 7 is truly a game-changer for the show due to its exciting, rapid pace.
In an exclusive interview with EW, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who plays Jamie Lannister on the show) confessed that filming the new season caught him a bit off-guard. “I feel like I’d been lulled into a different pace. Everything happened quicker than I’m used to,” the actor commented on Season 7’s energetic pacing. “A lot of things that normally take a season now take one episode.”
British actor Kit Harington, who plays the popular character Jon Snow in the series, agreed with Coster-Waldau’s sentiments. Harington added, “This season is really different than any other season because it’s accelerating toward the end, a lot of stuff collides and happens much quicker than you’re used to seeing on Thrones…it’s so different than what everybody is used to. It’s quite exciting.”
Now that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have decided to reduce the number of episodes for the last two seasons down to 7 from the traditional 10 episodes, one would expect the pacing of the show to speed up. However, Benioff and Weiss don’t see this move as rushing the show to its end. Instead, they argue that fewer episodes fits the story’s form best, and it would be a disservice to the show and storyline if they tried to stretch it out simply to make the final seasons fit the traditional 10-episode structure. Dan Weiss explained, “Things are moving faster because in the world of these characters the war that they’ve been waiting for is upon them. The conflicts that have been building the past six years are upon them and those facts give them a sense of urgency that makes [the characters] move faster.”
EW also recently released new promo pictures for Season 7, and the official Twitter account for Game of Thrones unveiled a mini teaser that is simply comprised of the face of an ominous White Walker accompanied with the premiere date of Season 7. All of the teaser trailers released thus far for Game of Thrones’ penultimate season have all focused on the arrival of White Walkers and the accompanying “Great War”, suggesting that the White Walkers will soon be a problem for all players of the game – not just Jon Snow.
Game of Thrones Season 7 will premiere on July 16 at 9pm EST on HBO.