Westeros

HBO has released a dramatic new trailer for the forthcoming second season of Game of Thrones. Very portentous. You can see it below:

Game of Thrones season 7 premieres in less than a month, on July 16th in the US.

Over at EW, James Hibberd spoke with the executive producers of Game of Thrones, who provided more details on the overall length of the season’s 7 episodes. The big news is that the final episode will be nearly 90 minutes long, with online leaks claiming an as-yet-unconfirmed 81 minute running length. The key quotes can be found below:

James Hibberd at EW has an intersting interview with Casey Bloys, HBO’s President of Programming, regarding the final seasons of Game of Thrones, the potential successor shows, and the involvement (or lack of same) of David Benioff and Dan Weiss in those last. Definitely read the full article, but below are a couple of choice quotes:

The highly-anticipated trailer for season 7 of Game of Thrones has landed after HBO and EW teased with new photos and the release of the official poster.

There are dragons. And maps. And spoilers, of course.

Season 7 premieres on July 16.

HBO has released the official poster for the forthcoming Season 7, revealing the rather diabolical image of the Night’s King:

HBO also took the additional step of releasing the image in video form, transitoning from a close-up of his ice-blue eye. You can see that below:

EW has seven brand-new photos from the forthcoming Game of Thrones Season 7, including the first look at just how enormous Drogon has gotten this season. (Fair warning: there are spoilers among the images.)

Back in March, one of the new directors to the show, Matt Shankman, remarked to James Hibberd that the dragons are the size of Boeing 747s, and the accompanying picture seems to bear that out.

May 17th is a significant day to our friends in Norway, but it also has a more global importance: World Baking Day! As fans of cakes, tarts, pastries, and all manner of other doughy treats, we’ve enjoyed our share of Game of Thrones-themed baked goods from home-made lemon cakes to Choccyoccydoodah‘s glorious Red Wedding cake.

Now, the HBO Store has fans covered if wanting a quick, easy way to make a Game of Thrones themed cake thanks to two silicon baking moulds featuring the Targaryen dragon and the Stark direwolf. The only question is, what sort of cake to make with each? We’ve always thought a red velvet cake would work very well for the Targaryens, but besides the obvious lemon cake we’re at a loss.

(Whatever you bake for World Baking Day, by the by, you’ll look pretty expert at it rocking one of these mitten and apron sets while you’re at it!)

Over at the “Not a Blog”—which will soon be retired in preference to a new blog, we’re told—George R.R. Martin has taken the time to discuss the recent news that HBO has four pilot scripts in development for a potential successor to Game of Thrones. George’s post is very illuminating, clarifying some details and providing a few hints, as well as a couple of clear and categorical responses.

It’s worth reading, but below are some key points:

As usual, James Hibberd at EW gets the big scoop. We’ve talked before about HBO’s executives confirming that they’re interested in exploring the A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones universe after the series is done, but this is the very first concrete news regarding it. Per Hibberd,

Also, Hibberd confirms Benioff and Weiss will be executive producers on any eventual show(s). It’s not exactly a surprise, however, given that they brought the property to HBO in the first place, so they would retain a stake. It’s pretty clear they will not be showrunners, however.

Some further thoughts below.

HBO has blasted out fifteen new images from the forthcoming 7th season of Game of Thrones, covering a range of the show’s key characters, many of them in their new, black-is-back fashions ahead of what’s likely to be a dark season. You can see the images in our gallery, but here’s a couple of examples to whet the appetite:

Game of Thrones returns to screens on July 16 in the US, July 17 in Europe.

HBO has just released the official season 7 promo for Game of Thrones. See it below:

The song, for those wondering, seems to be “Sit Down”, originally recorded by James; sounds like their version as well, but it may be a cover.

The Game of Thrones panel at SXSW, featuring producers Benioff and Weiss, as well as actresses Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, has revealed a few tidbits of news as reported by EW.

The most notable items, in my view, are that Benioff and Weiss have indicated that the final season of the series will be only 6 episodes long (although one wonders what odds one or more of those episodes will run long), and that they have no plans of being involved in any Game of Thrones spin-off or prequel project HBO may come up with. Also, this upcoming season will feature a cameo from musician Ed Sheeran, who happens to be a huge fan of the show as you can see in the video below.

While Linda and I were out speaking about The World of Ice and Fire at Gothenburg’s city library, HBO finally revealed the premiere date of season 7 of Game of Thrones: July 16th. And with that reveal, they also launched the first lengthy teaser, titled “Sigils” for its extensive use of the heraldic beasts and objects of the Seven Kingdoms.

This follows after the recent reveal of the Season 7 poster, via Entertainment Weekly. You can find the (brief) press release from HBO below!

Montegrappa, one of the oldest manufacturers of pens in Italy, has quietly released a line of Game of Thrones pens that are quite gorgeous. Drawing inspiration from four of the families—Baratheon, Lannister, Stark, and Targaryen—the series of pens feature three variants: ballpoint, rollerball, and fountain.

Montegrappa’s pens are currently available on some specialty sites, while their own e-commercse store is only available for those who reside in Italy. We noticed, when taking a look there, that the fountain pens are out of stock. We double-checked with HBO and they inform us that Montegrappa will have more available by the end of the month, which means those specialty retailers out there who currently don’t have them in stock will be able to order them in. No word as of yet whether they will be appearing at the HBO Store, but we’ll keep fans posted.

Here’s the full details from Montegrappa, below:

Sky Atlantic, home of Game of Thrones in the UK, and chef director Dan Doherty of the Duck and Waffle have teamed up with UK delivery service Deliveroo to present “The Drama Kitchen”, a pop-up takeaway which will be open from this evening to Sunday evening. The idea behind the concept? The 12 different meals available to order are all inspired by some of Sky Atlantic’s shows… including, of course, Game of Thrones.

See the Game of Thrones menu created for The Drama Kitchen:

That photo makes it all look quite delicious, although here’s hoping Bowl o’ Brown excludes human flesh! For those interested in ordering, note that availability is restricted geographically:

“The Drama Kitchen” will be open from January 26 to January 29.