First Official Game Of Thrones Photo From Final Season

HBO

The first official photo for Game of Thrones season eight is here to tease fans about the upcoming final episodes. 

After a long and gruelling wait since season seven of the show came to a close, fans can finally get excited about the final season’s 2019 release.

We’ve already had a quick preview into what the series will hold in the form of HBO’s teaser trailer, showing fans glimpses of Daenerys and Tyrion plotting their next moves, as well as Daenerys having a catch up with Jon Snow.

Entertainment Weekly released the first official photo on the cover of the magazine’s latest issue, which will take a look behind the scenes of the epic show.

Co-executive producer Bryan Cogman spoke about what viewers can expect to see in the highly anticipated final six episodes of GoT, explaining:

It’s about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death.

It’s an incredibly emotional haunting bittersweet final season and I think it honours very much what [author George R.R. Martin] set out to do — which is flipping this kind of story on its head.

Though it seems like there’s been an unnecessarily long gap between seasons seven and eight, the cast have in fact been hard at work in a gruelling 10-month shoot to ensure the show comes to a close in way which will leave the fans awestruck.

Some members of the cast have already teased the fate of their characters, helping fans paint a faint picture of what season eight might look like for Tyrion, Arya and Sansa – some of who seem to have more positive endings than others.

Speaking to IGN, Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, said:

She kind of takes ownership over who she is and what she stands for. Over the course of the series she’s been completely unaware of what she wants, where she wants to be, who she really is, and at the end of this season, I feel she is the most self-assured character in the show.

HBO

In contrast, Tyrion Lannister potentially could meet a more ‘tragic’ end, as actor Peter Dinklage told Entertainment Tonight:

There are no better writers in television than [showrunners] Dan Weiss and David Benioff. They ended it brilliantly. Better than I could have imagined and you people are in for it.

It ends beautifully for my character whether it be tragic or not.

But enough about what might happen – let’s focus on the here and now, in the form of the new official GoT photo.

Entertainment Weekly tweeted the image, which shows Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington, aka Daenerys and Jon Snow, wrapped in each other’s arms in a snow-covered landscape.

Take a look at it here:

The pair both spoke about their experiences filming the final season, admitting it was tough work.

Harington said:

It’s relentless; scenes that would have been a one-day shoot five years ago are now a five-day shoot. They want to get it right, they want to shoot everything every single way so they have options.

HBO

Clarke added:

[Camera] checks take longer, costumes are a bit better, hair and makeup a bit sharper — every choice, every conversation, every attitude, has this air of ‘this is it.’ Everything feels more intense.

Hopefully all the hard work will pay off in the form of some incredible viewing!

Bring on season eight!

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Emily Brown

Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.