'Game Of Thrones' Season 8 Photos: What Can We Learn From These New Looks?
HBO has been ultra-secretive about the final season of its mega-hit fantasy series Game of Thrones, so it's not too surprising that this new batch of photos doesn't reveal much about what Jon, Dany, Arya, Tyrion, and the rest of the gang are up to. But there may be one little hint about what's to come that's hiding in plain sight. Take a look at the new photos below.
Game of Thrones Season 8 Photos
These photos are sort of the Westerosi equivalent of Olan Mills glamor pics, with almost all of them being simple medium shots against generic backdrops. Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) is back at Winterfell for the first time since season one, and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) appears to have traded his Lannister armor for something more akin to what the northerners wear, which makes sense considering he's basically switched sides to fight alongside Jon and Dany as the White Walkers threaten the realm.
But even their faces don't tell us much in these photos: the only characters who look like they're breaking from their default expressions are Sam Tarly (John Bradley), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), and Jaime, who all appear a bit happier than usual. And sure, some of them may have slightly altered costumes, but that's standard practice for a new season of Thrones.
So what's the big deal? What can we learn here? Well, I think it's notable that the only full body shot here is of Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), the deranged queen who currently sits on the Iron Throne. In the fifth episode of the previous season, Cersei revealed to Jaime that she was pregnant with his child, and ever since, fans have been debating whether or not that pregnancy is real or just one more instance of Cersei manipulating her brother/lover. I'm not ready to make any grand proclamations either way quite yet, but Cersei's positioning in that photo above could be read as her maybe, actually being pregnant – even if the idea of her giving birth to a healthy baby this season and reclaiming her happy family seems about as likely as Zombie Hodor deejaying the final battle between White Walkers and humans from the side of the battlefield. Cersei's gone off the deep end after the loss of all three of her children, and her soul is so full of blackness that nothing is going to be able to fill that hole.
The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones is set to premiere on HBO on April 14, 2019.