40 days before the premiere of the eighth and final season from Game of Thrones, HBO has released the first full trailer. In it all the main and secondary characters are seen, great battles are intuited, the dragons are seen and the arrival of the white walkers at the gates of Winterfell is finally here. The clip begins with Arya saying, “I know death, He’s got many faces. I look forward to seeing this one.”

Although the eighth season of Game of Thrones will be shorter than usual, the chapters will be longer than normal, and each one is expected to have a duration that exceeds the original time. Although the budget for this series is not officially known, the media estimates that each chapter will have a budget of 15 million dollars. 

This season will feature the largest battle ever made for television and, according to the producers, the fight could encompass an entire episode. It was filmed in Northern Ireland employing 55 consecutive nights, as told by assistant director Jonathan Quinlan in a message that he later deleted. “You will not see anything like it again,” he said. The director of that episode will be Miguel Sapochnik, the person who was in charge of the battle of the bastards.

In interviews with Entertaiment Weekly, the team of the series has given out more facts about that battle.  “What we have asked the production team and crew to do this year truly has never been done in television or in a movie,” says Bryan Cogman, one of the executive producers of the series.  “This final face-off between the Army of the Dead and the army of the living is completely unprecedented and relentless and a mixture of genres even within the battle. There are sequences built within sequences built within sequences. David and Dan [wrote] an amazing puzzle and Miguel came in and took it apart and put it together again. It’s been exhausting but I think it will blow everybody away.” The director, Sapochnik, took as reference the great battles from the trilogy of Lord of The Rings, especially, the battle of Helm’s Deep, which to date has been the largest film battle ever shot.

In addition, the Game of Thrones universe will still be alive after the final season ends, as HBO prepares a prequel to Game of Thrones.  The new series will star Naomi Watts, who will play “a charismatic member of high society hiding a dark secret.”

Written by Cesar Moya