Ask — enough times — and ye shall receive.
As HBO cryptically promised earlier this week, the network finally revealed the premiere date for the eighth and final season of “Game of Thrones” in a teaser that aired just before the “True Detective” premiere Sunday.
So mark your calendars for April 14, as we now know that’s when we’re heading back to Westeros.
In the 1-minute, 44-second clip, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) are wandering alone in the crypts of Winterfell. They each hear the voices of Lyanna Stark, Catelyn Stark and Ned Stark, as they pass statues honoring their late family members.
Then the siblings converge and see three statues made in their own images, before the torches are blown out by an icy wind. Suddenly, a cold front creeps through the crypts and the Stark children are preparing for battle against an unknown enemy as winter arrives.
The teaser was directed by David Nutter — who won an Emmy in 2015 for his work on the Season 5 finale, “Mother’s Mercy,” and is directing several episodes from the final season — and includes an original score by Ramin Djawadi — who won an Emmy in 2018 for his score on the Season 7 finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf.”
This is not the first teaser for Season 8, but it is the first to include a decent amount of actual new footage — though none of it is from the final season. (We double-checked with HBO.)
A couple glimpses of the final six episodes have been doled out in teeny, tiny chunks over the last few months in HBO “sneak peek” promos, compilations previewing multiple new and returning series.
The first came in August and showed a single quick shot of Sansa and Jon embracing, and the second aired during the Golden Globes earlier this month. That latter tease showed what fans assumed is more from the previous scene, with Sansa handing Winterfell over to Daenerys in their very first meeting — and not looking too happy about it.
Watch the teaser above. (And yes, we’re still waiting on an actual trailer.)
“Game of Thrones” Season 8 premieres Sunday, April 14 at 9/8c on HBO.