Although the sixth season of Game of Thrones is already nearing its end, it still might seem a little bit premature to talk about the series finale of the much-loved fantasy drama. Then again, pieces of information surrounding its inevitable conclusion have been building up little by little lately, so it's time to acknowledge that — eventually — Sunday nights will forever be void of Daenerys, Jon Snow, Tyrion, and the rest of your GOT favorites. Keep reading to see each tidbit we've managed to get our hands on so far, and check out the latest crazy theory to come out of the fantasy drama.
Speaking at the Oxford Union last year, showrunner David Benioff discussed how George R.R. Martin is on board with the direction they're heading. "Luckily, we've been talking about this with George [R.R. Martin] for a long time," he said. "We know where things are heading. So, we'll eventually meet up at pretty much the same place where George is going. There might be a few deviations along the route, but we're heading towards the same destination."
For any viewers who read the books, Benioff told The Hollywood Reporter that they don't need to be worried about having things spoiled for them. "The show has diverged from the books quite dramatically by this point, but it's still George's world: The characters he's dreamt up in the world he created," he said. "At this point, given the fact that we're outpacing the novels, we all see the upside in the divergence: book readers won't be spoiled by what's to come on the show, and the show audience won't have to worry about spoilers from the unpublished books. And we're very happy that the show has led so many people to discover George's amazing books."
Game of Thrones has never been a show to have enormous, 20-plus-episode seasons, but it seems like the final two seasons might be even shorter than anyone previously imagined. "We've known for several years now how many hours, roughly, we want it to go," Benioff told EW earlier this April. "It hasn't changed." Benioff further revealed that the number of hours is 73, meaning the seventh season will have seven episodes and the eighth will have six. In other words, if this plan goes through, season six will be the last season of the show that has 10 episodes.
After seeing main characters like Ned and Robb Stark get brutally murdered in the first few seasons, Game of Thrones established early on that no character — no matter how beloved — is immune from the chopping block (although Martin's wife supposedly threatened to divorce him if he ever killed Arya, so she might be safe).
"Central heroes don't have any particular claim on immortality. In fact, we could argue that the notion of 'central heroes' is one of the fantasy tropes that George's books have so brilliantly exploded," showrunner D.B. Weiss told THR when speaking about which characters will make it to the conclusion of the series. "In traditional fantasy, when the forces of darkness are arrayed against the armies of light, everyone knows who's going to win. And that's one of the elements that bored us about traditional fantasy: the predictability of it."
Of all the Game of Thrones theories, perhaps the most enduring and hotly debated are as follows:
So far, season six has set up all three of these theories to be answered over the course of the final two seasons, which will give fans the closure they deserve.
In an interview with the New York Observer in August 2015, Martin shed some light on how he plans to end the books, and since he and the showrunners seem to be on the same page, you can expect the ending of the show to have a similar tone:
"I haven't written the ending yet, so I don't know, but no. That's certainly not my intent. I've said before that the tone of the ending that I'm going for is bittersweet. I mean, it's no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord of the Rings. It ends with victory, but it's a bittersweet victory. Frodo is never whole again, and he goes away to the Undying Lands, and the other people live their lives. And the scouring of the Shire — brilliant piece of work, which I didn't understand when I was 13 years old: 'Why is this here? The story's over?' But every time I read it I understand the brilliance of that segment more and more. All I can say is that's the kind of tone I will be aiming for. Whether I achieve it or not, that will be up to people like you and my readers to judge."