After what has been possibly one of the most excruciating waits in television history, Game of Thrones will return for its eighth and final season in April 2019. That’s a full twenty months after season 7 concluded way back in August of 2017, but fans are hoping that the extended off-time will have been worth it. Unfortunately, the waiting continues for now, but the cast and crew are at least starting to talk about the upcoming season.
In an interview with TV Guide this week, showrunners Benioff and Weiss, along with actors Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Emilia Clarke (Daenarys Targaryen), touched on how the stunning revelations of season 7 will affect the final six episodes, especially when it comes to the show’s impromptu heroes: Jon and Dany.
“The scope of this [final] season definitely exceeds anything we’ve attempted before,” said Benioff, which is an oft-repeated refrain from those who make and star in the show when discussing season 8. “From a dramatic standpoint, it makes things interesting, because the story is no longer about who Jon’s parents are,” Weiss added, referring to the confirmation of a long-running fan theory. “It’s about what happens when Jon finds out.”
With the world threatening to crumble all around them, just as The Wall did in the final moments of season 7, Jon will have no choice but to keep his wits about him when he does discover that the love of his life is also his relative. “Jon is someone who plays by the book,” Harington said. “He cannot lie. Finding out about Dany would be very hard for him.” But for as noble as Jon Snow has been, it wouldn’t be any easier for the queen.
“Daenerys’s lifelong dream has been to avenge her family and claim her rightful seat on the Iron Throne,” said Clarke. “She truly loves Jon. Were she to find out about his title, it would cut deep.”
For as many story lines as there are left to play out in the final 6 to 8 hours of the series, the thread concerning Jon and Daenerys is the one long-time fans of the show (and the books) are most exciting to see come to a head. Now we just need HBO to tell us when exactly season 8 will debut so we can start preparing.
