First ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 Footage Released in HBO Teaser

HBO released the first footage from Game of Thrones eighth and final season in a teaser for the network’s upcoming 2019 programming. The footage was not much, but it was enough to get excited over.

The new Game of Thrones footage includes a new reunion scene with Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). In another scene, Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) dodges an axe thrown by Gendry (Joe Dempsie).

The footage was dropped Sunday night in a surprise teaser, along with some scenes from HBO‘s other shows. It also includes the scenes from True Detective season three, The Deuce season two, the documentary Jane Fonda In Five Acts, Camping with Jennifer Garner, Room 104, My Brilliant Friend and the Flight of the Conchords reunion.

A new scene from Big Little Lies season two was also included.

It’s not clear when the new season of Game of Thrones will debut. Casey Boys, HBO’s president of programming previously said it might be released in the “first half” of 2019, but another report suggested it might miss the cut off period for the 2019 Emmys.

“In two years we’ll be eligible for the Season 8 work, which is just beginning now,” visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer told HuffPost Saturday. “We’re going to be toiling away on Season 8 until May of 2019, so it’s eight or nine months away. But the prequel is starting to shoot in February, at least the pilot. So we’ll still have quite a lot to do on Season 8 when they’re beginning.”

The eligibility period for the 2019 Emmys ends on May 31, 2019. However, if the final season starts airing before that date it could still be eligible.

While we do not know much about the final season of Game of Thrones, especially since the show is ahead of the books, the cast has continued to praise the writing of the last episodes.

“I read [the series finale], and I wrote [creators] Dan [“D.B.” Weiss] and David [Benioff] and said I don’t think they could have done a better job,” Coster-Waldau told The Wrap earlier this month. “I mean, when I read it — I’ve spent so many years working on this and been guessing and trying to figure out how this will end — and when I read it, some of the parts of it I’d get, and other parts of it were just completely shocking and surprising.”

In the meantime, fans can expect Game of Thrones to pick up a few more Emmys next month. The show was nominated for 22 awards, including Outstanding Drama Series. Coster-Waldau, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey and Diana Rigg earned nominations for their performances.

Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin and HBO are also developing multiple spin-offs. The first one to get a greenlight from the network is a prequel series Martin created with Jane Goldman set thousands of years before the fight for the Iron Throne seen in Game of Thrones.

The still-untitled series will focus on “The Long Night,” a period in Westeros history when humans first encountered the evil White Walkers.

Photo credit: HBO