When 2016 is finally behind us, that means we'll once again be inside of a year that has new Game of Thrones episodes on the way, which is what life is all about, right? Unfortunately, next year's seventh season will be the penultimate one for HBO's fantasy epic, as Game of Thrones' long and winding tale will be completed in 2018. And it's not just fans that are already having anxiety attacks over thoughts of a life without the Starks and Lannisters, as star Sophie Turner says everyone on the show itself is also taking the impending end date seriously.
It's definitely emotional. We can really feel everything slowly coming to an end. We'd have these discussions like, 'What are we going to do on the last day on set? What are you going to get the producers?' It's all becoming quite real now that we're coming to a close. It's quite somber on set, but everyone's just trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Trying to get the most out of it. Trying not to take anything for granted.
It probably helps take the cast's mind off of the show ending to be able to, you know, film Game of Thrones. But then it's the love of performing in it that makes them sad about leaving. This is the circle of life, or in this series' case, many circles of many deaths.
Now that Game of Thrones is almost fully immersed in No Books Land, no one is guaranteed to make it to the end of a particular episode, much less the series, so the emotional push the actors feel is probably two-fold. One side would be that longer-term pang of worry about what life will be like without the job in two years, and the other side would be that just-beneath-the-skin worry that one's death scene is on the very next page of the script. Perhaps main actors like Sophie Turner and Kit Harington are given hints ahead of time that they should expect to be around for the long haul, but that absolutely isn't the case for everyone. Lots of sad, happy people walking around those sets, I reckon.
Sansa Stark has been through some particularly tumultuous times, and Sophie Turner wouldn't be questioned for not wanting to experience many years more of the darkest scenes Game of Thrones has to offer. But then it's a different and more evolved Sansa that viewers will be seeing when the show returns, as she fully embraces that darkness as the quest for the Throne gets all the more intense and dangerous. Turner told Vulture in her interview that the plan is for everyone who survives Season 8 to get matching tattoos, but acknowledges she might not be a part of that bunch. My money is on the Stark females always, especially now.
Game of Thrones sadly won't be back on HBO for its usual spring airing, since that whole Winter thing is coming/already there, so we'll be waiting until at least the summer for Season 7 to arrive. Find out all the details that have come out about it in our comprehensive guide, read the latest about the potential spinoff here, and head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what else the small screen has to offer in the new year.
