There is always plenty of mystery swirling around each season ofGame of Thrones, but the lead-up toSeason 6has been the most secretive yet. While the cast and crew did hold their annual Comic Con panel last summer, they stopped an annual tradition of confirming new cast members, and to this day, HBO still hasn’t revealed any new cast members or characters thus far. There is still so much we don’t know about this season, which is set to debut on Sunday, April 24, butEntertainment Weeklymanaged to catch up with series creatorDavid Benioff, who wouldn’t offer any specifics on the season, but did proclaim it was the best yet. Here’s what he had to say, when asked which aspect ofGame of Thrones Season 6is the most exciting.
“The whole season. (Series co-creator)Dan (Weiss)and I talk about this a lot. This is not us trying to hype it. Usually there’s an episode or two we’re kind of nervous about, that didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. This season there is not a weak episode. We had great directors who knew what they were doing, paired with excellent [directors of photography]. We thought at the script stage it might be our strongest season. Then the episodes came in better than we hoped. We’re always reluctant to say it’s ‘the best season yet’ because so much of that is in the eyes of the beholder. And Dan and I are so close to it that it’s impossible to be unbiased. But that’s my sense - watching them all together now, this is the best one we’ve done. It’s also the one I’m proudest of, because it was the hardest.”
Season 6is the first to be crafted without authorGeorge R.R. Martin’s books as a guide, sinceSeason 5essentially caught up to the author’s five novels he has written thus far. The author hasn’t announced a publication date yet for his long-awaited sixth novel, entitledThe Winds of Winter, and with all of the mystery surroundingSeason 6, fans aren’t sure what to expect from these new episodes. Thankfully, the network finally released a trailer with thefirst footageearlier this month, which offers plenty of new clues.
The trailer essentially confirmed the death ofJon Snow(Kit Harington), who was brutally killed by his Night’s Watch brothers in theSeason 5finale.Kit Haringtondid confirm that he shot scenes of his character being dead in this new season, but it seems that’s all we’ll be seeing from the former Night’s Watch commander throughout the rest of the series. Since the producers have been so secretive leading up to this season, it’s possible that he could be given a surprise resurrection at some point later in the season, but that’s only speculation, for now.
The trailer also gave us a new look at the returning characterBran Stark(Isaac Hempstead-Wright), who sat out all ofSeason 5since his storyline in the show was caught up to the books. We only can a tiny glimpse of Bran, but he’s seen turning around to find none other than the Night’s King standing behind him. Since Bran is standing, and the character has been crippled since the first season, it’s possible this footage was from one of his “greensight” visions, but we don’t know for sure. Do you thinkSeason 6ofGame of Thronescould be the best yet?
