Anais Gutierrez
The anticipated premiere of the seventh season of ‘Game of Thrones’ finally lands on Sunday. And with only a few days to go, it seems like the ‘Game of Thrones’ universe is taking on the real world.
Loosen “White Walkers” in the streets of London, Winter arriving in Los Angeles and new information being released. We can only take so much.
Fiction meeting reality
‘Game of Thrones‘ fans still have a few days to go until Sunday, when answers will begin to reveal. But there’s too much happening in these few days and it’s almost too much to handle. First, on Wednesday the infamous White Walkers took on London streets to promote the upcoming season.
Then, on Wednesday evening, Winter definitely arrived in downtown Los Angeles as HBO held a premiere screening event at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. With a “Winter is here” theme, a frosty blue carpet and the chilling visage of the icy Night’s King on posters, sculptures and projected onto the undulating exterior of the Walt Disney Concert Hall
Before the season opener was screened, HBO cleverly invoked a no-spoilers clause with an audio warning in Snow’s voice.
It said, that all “lords, ladies, wildlings, bastards and CAA agents” refrain from taking photos and videos and sharing episodic spoilers, asking all to “pledge my honor to the Night’s Watch and all nights to come — until Sunday.” And finally, at this point we practically know by heart the two teasers, so, HBO graced us by releasing a new set of pictures of the first episode giving very little away.
One of the pictures offers another look at the large painted map of Westeros that featured prominently in the first trailer for the season.
The long wait is over, we’re getting season seven in seven
‘Game of Thrones’ season seven is a particularly different one for different reasons. For starters, the seasons traditionally aired episodes from April. However, season seven was delayed until July. Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss explained part of the reason behind this decision. The pair started filming for the new season later than usual to take advantage of the gloomier weather.
“We’re starting a bit later because at the end of this season, ‘Winter is here’ – and that means that sunny weather [that we usually film in] doesn’t really serve our purposes anymore,” they explained.“So we kind of pushed everything down the line, so we could get some grim gray weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot.”
Also, seasons are generally formed of ten episodes. But not season seven. Season seven will be formed of only seven episodes.
To make up for the shorter run, each episode will be longer than usual, with the premiere clocking in at 59 minutes. Episode two is the same length, with episode three stretching to 63 minutes, episode four lasting for 50 minutes and episode five coming in at 59 minutes.
The penultimate episode will be 71 minutes long, with the finale a feature-length 81 minutes. The epic nature of the new run means that producers spent the same amount of time filming as they usually would for a 10-hour season.
Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, has said: “Season seven has much more ambition. There are fewer episodes this year, so they spent more money on those episodes. So, the whole scale of it is up.”
And it’s packed!
It was reported that Jim Broadbent will join the cast as “an old professor character”, thought to be Maester Marwyn. The Harry Potter actor stated, “I did five [of seven] episodes. I did sort of one major scene in each episode.”
Actor Joseph Quinn will also play a new character named Koner, who has not yet appeared in in George RR Martin’s novels.And, following the likes of musicians Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Will Champion (Coldplay) and Sigur Rós, Ed Sheeran is getting a cameo in the new season.
Showrunner David Benioff revealed: ”For years we were trying to get Ed Sheeran on the show to surprise Maisie and this year we finally did it.” It is not known what part Sheeran will play, or whether he will perform as previous musicians have done.
As for original cast members, actress Sophie Turner revealed a major hint during the red carpet at the Thrones premiere on July 12.Turner, who plays Sansa Stark, revealed that fans can expect to see some sibling rivalry in season seven.
“There’s rivalry between them,” the actress said.
“She has power now. She’s at Jon’s right hand, and there’s definitely a lot of respect for her, considering she saved everyone. But he is grappling with just how much respect he has for her, and how much of a say she has.” HBO also revealed the name of the first three episodes, being ‘Dragonstone,’ ‘Stormborn’ and ‘The Queens Justice.’
Winter is finally here.
Source: NME
