Everything we learned about 'Game of Thrones' Season 8 this week

Much like winter, Game of Thrones is coming. While most details about Season 8 of Thrones have been kept under wraps by HBO, the powers that be have decided to allow a few cracks in the wall of information as the final season approaches — here's what was spilled just this week.

The Teaser

On November 13th, HBO released a...not quite trailer announcing Season 8's premiere month and hashtag: #ForThe Throne.

The teaser included watershed moments from previous seasons like the wildfire explosion at the Sept of Baelor, the Battle of the Bastards, and the Purple Wedding under old dialogue from Cersei and Jon Snow.

The Premiere Month

The teaser revealed that Season 8 will premiere in April 2019, but the exact date is still unknown.

With the exception of Season 7, every Game of Thrones premiere has been in the spring, with most premieres occurring on the second or third weeks in April.

The Reddit AMA

In a Reddit AMA, Thrones director David Nutter (who directed two episodes in Season 8) said that Season 8 will have episodes that rival the Red Wedding. He should know, since he directed the Season 3 episode "The Rains of Castamere."

Nutter also said that every episode in Season 8 will be longer than 60 minutes and will be "dancing around the bigger numbers." He did not reveal the specific runtime of any episodes.

In the same AMA, Nutter mentioned that Tormund Giantsbane appears in the 8th season, meaning that everyone's favorite ginger wildling survived the Night King's assault on the wall.

When asked to describe Season 8 in three word, Nutter replied "Spectacular, Inspiring, Satisfying."

Other miscellaneous details Nutter added were that a direwolf (he didn't name which one) appears in Season 8 and that none of the episodes he personally directed involve time travel.

This all follows the first big chunk of info, which came in the form of an Entertainment Weekly cover story last week.

The article, which contained some *spoilers* for the first episode of Season 8, confirmed that the first episode contains a scene reminiscent of King Robert's arrival at Winterfell in the first episode of Game of Thrones. From EW:

"Season 8 opens at Winterfell with an episode that contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s pilot. Instead of King Robert’s procession arriving, it’s Daenerys and her army."

Later in the article it's revealed that Sansa Stark is not happy that Jon Snow bent the knee to Daenerys Targaryen.

Several cast members cried at the table read for the final season, and Kit Harington said in the same EW piece that he cried twice.

There are still five months to go before anyone sees the beginning of the end, but it's nice to know that even the actors aren't immune to getting misty-eyed over the prospect of Thrones.

If Jon Snow is shedding double tears, the rest of the world doesn't stand a chance.