On Thursday, HBO released the first official teaser for the seventh season of its hit show Game of Thrones. While not showing any actual footage from the new season, the teaser hints at the wars to come.
It features characters Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow and Cersei Lannister all taking a long walk to their respective thrones in Dragonstone, Winterfell and King’s Landing with the interesting song choice of “Sit Down” by James playing in the background. Other main characters such as Tyrion Lannister and Sansa Stark are noticeably absent, indicating that the fight to the iron throne is a three-horse race.
Arguably the most interesting and revealing part of the teaser is the last ten seconds. Cersei takes a breath so cold that you can see it followed by a close shot of the night king’s eye. The meaning behind this is clear: winter is here. In the literal sense, Cersei’s frigid breath shows that it is finally cold in King’s Landing, a place where it has been summer for six seasons now. But, aside from that, the shot of the night’s king shows that the white walkers are no longer a distant threat. And ending with that shot seems to suggest that maybe the fight to the throne is not the most important thing viewers should be worrying about when it comes to this new season.
Posted only four days ago, the teaser already has over 12 million views on YouTube. Not many shows can generate that much hype from a teaser that does not even show any new footage from the upcoming season. The song choice, the selection of characters, and those last pivotal ten seconds are all successful at creating anticipation for season 7 — which is exactly what the teaser intended to do. With only seven episodes, shorter than the normal ten, this season will be the penultimate season of Game of Thrones. It is the beginning of the end. Let the countdown begin.
Season 7 of Game of Thrones airs on HBO July 16th.
