Westeros

After the release of the Johnnie Walker White Walker limited edition blended whisky, HBO and DIAGEO have teamed up to now release their limited edition collection of classic single malt whiskys with Game of Thrones-inspired dress. These whiskys are now available for pre-order on Amazon in select EU countries (presently that seems to mean the UK, Italy, and Germany) as well as Malts.com.

We’ll link them all below:

• Game of Thrones House Stark â`“ Dalwhinnie Winter’s Frost; SRP: £48 for 700cl; ABV 43%
• Game of Thrones House Tully â`“ Singleton of Glendullan Select; SRP: £38 for 700cl; ABV 40%
• Game of Thrones House Targaryen â`“ Cardhu Gold Reserve; SRP: £48 for 700cl; ABV 40%
• Game of Thrones House Lannister â`“ Lagavulin 9 Year Old; SRP: £65 700cl; ABV 46%
• Game of Thrones The Night’s Watch â`“ Oban Bay Reserve; SRP: £65 for 700cl; ABV 43%
• Game of Thrones House Greyjoy â`“ Talisker Select Reserve; SRP: £48 for 700cl; ABV 45.8%
• Game of Thrones House Baratheon â`“ Royal Lochnagar 12 Year Old; SRP: £38 for 700cl; ABV 40%
• Game of Thrones House Tyrell â`“ Clynelish Reserve; SRP: £48 for 700cl; ABV 51.2%

We’re not whisky enthusiasts, but DIAGEO and HBO seem to have put some real thought into this selection, matching up houses (and the Night’s Watch) with whiskys that have some matching quality. For example, the Cardhu Gold Reserve is associated with House Targaryen and Daenerys because of the fact that that distillery was founded by two women, and the Oban was selected to represent the Night’s Watch because the distillery sits beneath a cliff much as Castle Black sits beneath the Wall. Clever.

After much anticipation and guesswork, HBO has announced the date for the premiere of the final season of Game of Thrones. That date, according to the new, poignant teaser is April 14th:

From EW, the pilot production for HBO’s new Game of Thrones successor show—“The Long Night”, as George calls it (but HBO tells him not to)—has collected eight new actors as well as announed its director.

Veteran TV director S.J. Clarkson will direct. Her credits include HBO’s prestige series Vinyl (which, sadly, failed to draw in viewers), Jessica Jones, Life on Mars, and much more—and

was set to helm the as-yet unnamed new Star Trek film. Joining her and the previously-announced Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehouse are eight additional actors. See their details below!

After having revealed a few months ago that a Fire and Blood limited edition was in the offing, Subterranean Press has now made pre-orders available for this exclusive edition of George R.R. Martin’s history of House Targaryen (part 1).

This limited edition—52 lettered (all sold out) and 750 numbered—includes some bonuses over the standard edition that was published last month. It contains all the same art from the talented Doug Wheatley, but augments it with full-color artwork (such as the piece above) by the legendary Gary Gianni. Well-worth grabbing if you are a collector, or simply a fan of Gianni’s renderings of Westeros. His illustrations for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms show just how amazing his work can be.

With the new year (hope everyone has had a great one!), HBO has put together a video featuring their upcoming slate of programming with clips from highly anticipated programs such as True Detective, Big Little Lies, Veep... and, of course, Game of Thrones. This features the very first bit of dialogue from the show’s final season, so if you want to see or hear absolutely nothing of the show before it airs, skip it: