'Game Of Thrones' Season 6: Everything We Know So Far

As we reported back in June, Game of Thrones has already revealed its list of directors for Season 6:

Episodes 1 and 2 will be directed by Jeremy Podeswa, who helmed Season 5's "Kill the Boy" and "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken." His other credits include episodes of HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Showtime's The Tudors.

Episodes 3 and 4 will be directed by Daniel Sackheim. He's new to Game of Thrones but has plenty of directing experience on other shows like FX's The Americans and Fox's Lie to Me, House, and The X-Files.

Episodes 5 and 6 will be directed by Jack Bender, another Thrones newbie with a long list of non-Thrones credits. He's probably best known for his work on Lost, of which he directed 38 episodes. He's also worked on Under the Dome, The Sopranos, and Alias.

Episodes 7 and 8 will be directed by Mark Mylod, who directed "High Sparrow" and "Sons of the Harpy" in Season 5. He was a regular behind the camera on HBO's Entourage (23 episodes) and Showtime's Shameless (11 episodes).

Episodes 9 and 10 will be directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who gave us Season 5's "The Gift" and "Hardhome." You might remember the latter as the one with the massive wight attack, and Game of Thrones traditionally goes big for the ninth episode of this season.

Good question. George R.R. Martin said this spring that he'd like The Winds of Winter to come out before Game of Thrones Season 6 premieres, presumably to avoid having the show start spoiling the books. More recently, though, he's changed his tune a bit:

There was a period where I was worried about that. Then I said, to hell with that. Worrying about it isn't going to change it one way or another. I still sit down at the typewriter, and I have to write the next scene and the next sentence ... I'm just going to tell my story, and they're telling their story and adapting my books, and we shall see.

The one thing he can say for sure is that he doesn't want to publicly announce a timeline. "Don't ask me when the book is going to be done — I'll ask my minions to lop your head off," he joked.

But Martin's Spanish publisher may have spilled the beans. Editor Alejo Cuervo told a radio station that he expects The Winds of Winter to hit in 2016 "for sure... unless a meteorite falls."

We can expect all the major characters who are still alive to return next season, of course, including Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, etc.

In addition, we'll be welcoming back a few characters who haven't been seen in a while:

Note: Season 5 spoilers and Season 6 speculation ahead.

It doesn't matter how many times the cast and crew insist "dead is dead" — those Jon Snow truther theories are going to stick around until Season 6 actually premieres.

The mystery here actually isn't whether Kit Harington will return as Snow. There's very good reason to believe he will, as the actor has been spotted near the set on multiple occasions. No, the big question is what form he'll take. The most boring, straightforward guess is that Harington is just back to play a corpse, like Jack Gleeson (Joffrey) and Charles Dance (Tywin) did after their characters died.

There's also the possibility he'll only appear in a flashback or dream sequence of some sort. Both devices have been employed by the show at various points. Remember when Jason Momoa came back as Khal Drogo for Dany's vision at the House of the Undying?

But the most intriguing (and possibly very spoiler-y) fan theory is that [begin invisotext]Jon Snow will be resurrected by Melisandre. There's precedent on the show for bringing back the dead — Beric Dondarrion, seen in Seasons 1 and 2, has been killed and revived multiple times by the red priest Thoros of Myr.[end invisotext]

Last Seen: Finally meeting the Three-Eyed Raven in the Season 4 finale.Next Up: According to the showrunners, Bran has spent Season 5 training with the Three-Eyed Raven offscreen. Think of it as Bran's own Luke Skywalker-like transformation. "Like, it would be far less interesting, after The Empire Strikes Back to have an hour-long movie in between Empire and Return of the Jedi where Luke is training," said David Benioff. "It's so much cooler to cut from end of Empire to beginning of Return, where he's become the Jedi."

Last Seen: Balon Greyjoy was last seen refusing to rescue his son Theon from the Boltons in Season 3. His daughter Yara was last seen trying and failing to rescue Theon in Season 4.Next Up: So far the Iron Islands have been severely sidelined on the show, but that may change in Season 6. The casting of Pilou Asbæk as Euron Greyjoy and the return of Gemma Whelan as Yara Greyjoy suggest we're about to see a kingsmoot, i.e., a ceremony to choose the next king of the Iron Islands.

Last Seen: Spending almost all of Season 5 waiting for Sansa to light a candle, only to give up right before Sansa actually lights the damn candle, and then wandering off to kill Stannis instead.Next Up: Brienne's entire Season 5 storyline was created just for the show, so there's a good chance she'll spend Season 6 catching up with her book counterpart. If so, expect to see a lot more action. We don't want to get too deep into spoiler territory here, but if you're curious Vanity Fair has a great rundown of what might happen to Brienne next season. (Yes, they think Lady Stoneheart is a possibility.)

Last Seen: Enjoying a religious uprising courtesy of the Faith Militant.Next Up: It's difficult to guess what's next for our primary King's Landing characters (i.e., Cersei, Margaery, and Tommen). More generally, however, set photos indicate both the Tyrell soldiers and the Faith Militant will be running around the city in full force.

Last Seen: Left to rule Meereen on Daenerys' behalf, along with Missandei, Grey Worm, and Varys, while Jorah Mormont and Daario Naharis go off to look for her.Next Up: Although she wouldn't get into specifics, Nathalie Emmanuel, who plays Missandei, teased some fun times ahead for the city-state's new ruling trio:

The dynamic of those three characters will be so fun to watch. You've got Tyrion who is just so comical, and then Missandei, who is very straight and collected, and very internal with her feelings, and then Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson), who is almost emotionless altogether, as far as we're aware... So to put those two characters with a guy who just talks a lot, and is so funny, and is a bit of a drunk, a bit of a womanizer — it's setting up for a really interesting dynamic.

Last Seen: Getting her revenge on Meryn Trant by stabbing him to death in a brothel. As punishment, Jaqen H'gar blinds her.Next Up: Arya is still blind in Season 6 (or at least for part of Season 6), as confirmed by Maisie Williams. More recently, the actress teased that the character could be "fighting blind" in the new season. There's also a rumor that Arya will be headed to the Riverlands this season, and both the books (specifically, the Winds of Winter preview chapter "Mercy") and set photos suggest she'll be crossing paths with the theater troupe at some point.