July 16, 2017: the date HBO’s Game of Thrones returns for season 7 according to Variety and one dramatic block of ice.
The date was revealed in Game of Thrones style: slow agonizing torture. Fans waited for over an hour to watch a block of ice melt to reveal the premiere date according to Radio Times. Fans could speed up the process by commenting on the video, but watching ice melt even with the help of a fiery blast isn’t much more exciting than watching paint dry. As if we all weren’t busy waiting for George Martin’s next A Song of Fire and Ice book. If the live stream wasn’t painful enough, the video also cut out for about 15 minutes and fans were left waiting again in a dark dungeon of anticipation… twice. Only Game of Thrones could get enough people (over 150,000) to watch ice melt to crash a video. But at least it prompted some hilarious responses on Twitter:
Previous seasons have premiered in April, but Season 7 was delayed to accommodate weather and filming schedules, allowing for the darkest, grimmest, coldest, or snowiest winter settings possible. This penultimate season will deviate from the regular formula, with only seven episodes rather than ten.
Game of Thrones will also have a strong presence at SXSW 2017 which begins tomorrow; Friday, March 10th. Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner will be joining producer-writers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for the Game of Thrones panel on March 12th.
The audio sneak peak, poster, and new trailer are all similar levels of unhelpful for anyone trying to decipher what may actually happen during the next season. The trailer, though undeniably super cool and eerie, features a montage of the various house sigils (a rose for the Tyrells, the stag for the Baratheon, etc.) and voice overs from the previous seasons. The shroud of mystery remains utterly intact. The only new dialogue spoken is an unsurprising statement by Jon Snow: “There is only one war that matters. The Great War. And it is here.”