Game of Thrones: The Most Tantalizing Final Season Details from a Highly Secretive Report

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With rare exceptions, it has for years been up to Entertainment Weekly alone to report back on the goings on behind the scenes of Game of Thrones with their past themed cover issues on Stark family reunions or female rulers ascendent representing our best insight into what the shows creators hope each season will convey. But in this final season and with its new cover story, even Entertainment Weekly has been left out in the cold a bit. (Though were still several months away from the Season 8 premiere, and Id be surprised if this is the last Thrones cover we see.)

Other than the image of Kit Harington and Emilia Clarke where, admittedly, Daeneryss famous winter look gets a to-die-for Targaryen red update, there are no new images or costumes to ooh and ahh over.

Still, the magazine did manage to smuggle a few choice tidbits back down south. Heres a roundup of what you need to know.

Sansa Will Be at Odds with Daenerys This Season: Eagle-eyed fans were accused of overthinking it when a split-second of Season 8 footage emerged back in August showing Sansa embracing Jon as she looked warily over his shoulder at . . . something. Could this be Jon returning to Winterfell and Sansa not liking the look of Daenerys? Almost certainly, yes. E.W. reports: “How these fan favorites get along drives much of the drama this season (O.K., heres one specific tease from the premiere—Sansa isnt thrilled that Jon bent the knee to his fancy new Targaryen girlfriend, at least not at first).” Hopefully, the Daenerys-Sansa clash is handled better than the bitter acrimony between the Stark sisters which stood out as a weak point in Season 7.

This uneasy reunion between Sansa and Jon will take place in the Season 8 premiere and is meant mirror the Game of Thrones Season 1 opener when King Robert Baratheon and his retinue arrive in Winterfell to meet the Stark family—most of whom are now no longer alive on the show. Better hope Arya isnt out hunting or visiting Hot Pie when Jon shows up, because we are all very ready for that particular reunion.

Dan Weiss and David Benioff Initially Wanted the Final Season to Be Feature Films: For years George R.R. Martin has been saying the final season of Game of Thrones could be released as a series of movies, but if youre wondering where he got that bright idea, it came from Weiss and Benioff themselves. Back in 2012 when their budget was much smaller, the pair couldnt figure out how to execute Martins vision for the final A Song of Ice and Fire battle as anything other than a feature film—and HBO shot the idea down. But what a difference five years make. Not only has the Thrones budget swelled since then, but the lines between big-budget movies and prestige, spectacle TV have all but gone away, in large part thanks to Game of Thrones. So even if the endgame doesnt screen in a cinema, dont expect a single corner to be cut.

About That Final Battle: O.K., we learned a few fun things here! The story mentions that Martin envisioned “an epic final battle thats been teased from the shows very first scene.” That first scene, if youll recall, involves Ser Waymar Royce and a handful of red shirts journeying North of the Wall only to encounter some shadowy White Walkers. (The show hadnt quite nailed down its design yet.) Royce and most of the men didnt make it out of that confrontation alive; lets hope Jon and Daenerys fair better.

If there was any doubt as to whether or not that final battle would be between Night Kings undead army and our human heroes (as opposed to, say, between the Northern armies and Cerseis treacherous Southern force), then this article clears that right up: “The drama” of the season “builds to a confrontation with the Army of the Dead thats expected to be the most sustained action sequence ever made for television or film.” David Benioff says: “Its the living against the dead, and you cant do that in a 12-minute sequence.” This much-touted clash will take up at least one entire episode—if not more—helmed by Game of Thrones action director extraordinaire: Miguel Sapochnik.

When Will That Battle Take Place in the Season?: According to some deductive reasoning, fans have determined that Sapochnik is directing Episodes 3 and 5 of the six-episode season. So his major battle episode that will be “wall-to-wall” action? That is probably Episode 5 in the grand Thrones tradition of setting the most harrowing action in the penultimate installment of each season. Sapochnik reportedly spent over two months (55 nights shooting outside, plus several weeks inside) filming the episode which is so brutal, Peter Dinklage says, it makes the bloody Battle of the Bastards “look like a theme park.”

Where Will It Take Place?: The set visit described here takes place at Winterfell—but that is for the Episode 6 finale, not for this Episode 5 clash. Still, the article points out all the blood on the ground and the thick smoke in the air on set as well as the fact that the Stark ancestral home was built out in a major way to help “pull off” the scope of the massive battle. This may explain why the Winterfell location was set on fire earlier this year. Cant think of a better way to wipe out the Army of the Dead.

So, then, we can probably expect a seasons worth of interpersonal human drama that peaks with a supernatural battle in Episode 5 set at least partially at Winterfell. Episode 6, it stands to reason, will either wrap up the battle or spend its running time dealing entirely with the aftermath. That installment was directed by Weiss and Benioff themselves.

But can we truly expect the Night King to take five entire episodes to go from the Wall to just down the road to Winterfell? Seems unlikely for a show thats become infamous for shortening the amount of time it takes to zoom around Westeros. It also seems unlikely that Winter will never truly come to Kings Landing. Perhaps this last Winterfell stand takes place during the Night Kings victory lap back home after decimating the South.

Who Will Fight in the Battle?: Other than Ghost, we hope? Maybe everyone. The article says: “The battle doesnt have just one focus, either, but rather intercuts between multiple characters involved in their own survival storylines that each feels like its own genre.” Thats reminiscent of one of the most successful Thrones battle sequences from back before the budget ballooned: Season 2s Battle of Blackwater. Benioff seems to agree with some Thrones critics that the size and spectacle of a battle alone wont necessarily make for great TV: “Having the largest battle doesnt sound very exciting—it actually sounds pretty boring.” Like last years memorable scrap between Jaime and Daenerys, it will be poignant character beats and clever staging that will keep audiences on the edge of their seats.

As for who makes it through the battle, that remains to be seen, of course, but E.W. promises at least some of the surviving faces in the finale are unexpected ones.

Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Joanna RobinsonJoanna Robinson is a Hollywood writer covering TV and film for VanityFair.com.

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