It feels like it's been decades since we last saw Game of Thrones on our screens, and while that may be an exaggeration, it hasn't exactly been a short wait either. Let's be honest, these last two years have been downright painful, with our patience being put to the test. Now that we're finally in 2019, we're a little bit closer, and have at least got a release date to look forward to.
Earlier this week, we found out we'd be getting the eighth and final season on April 14th, and we were even treated to a little tease of what's ahead of us.
It's not exactly going to be an easy thing to watch for a lot of us - while there's surely going to be plenty of excitement, there will also be some big deaths and other tragedies for our favourite characters to face. It doesn't sound like it's been that easy for the actors either, who had a bit of a rough time filming the last few episodes.
Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, said that he and many of the other members of the cast were left "broken" by the shoot. "We were sleep deprived," the actor said in an interview with GQ Australia.
"It was like it was designed to make you think, 'Right, I’m fucking sick of this.' I remember everyone walking around towards the end going, 'I’ve had enough now. I love this, it’s been the best thing in my life, I’ll miss it one day – but I’m done.'"
That sentiment is shared by Hafthor Bjornsson, the actor who is currently portraying 'The Mountain' in the series. Apparently, he has a huge stunt coming up in the final season, which no doubt sees the towering (and zombified) figure in action after a couple of seasons of standing and glowering ominously in the background while Cersei downs bottles of wine.
This big stunt, the bodybuilder revealed, was so tough that he wasn't allowed to do it himself, with the production requiring that he be given a stunt double for the first time. Speaking to Mashable, he said:
"All the seasons prior to this season that we just finished filming, I never had stunt doubles. I always did everything myself. But the last season I filmed, the season that hasn’t been shown on television, I had a stunt double there.
"I can’t go into details, you know, but I had a stunt double there. I can tell you that. He was tall, not as muscular. But he was taller and big."
In addition to this, Bjornsson said that the eighth season was much tougher to shoot than any of the previous ones he's appeared in, but it will all be worth it for fans of the hit fantasy series:
"Viewers can definitely expect an amazing season. I obviously know just a little bit, I don’t know what’s gonna happen in everything, you know I only play a small role, you know, but I’m at least super excited to see the season and it was certainly the most hardest season I’ve filmed for Game Of Thrones."
I was excited already, and I wasn't even thinking of the crazy stuff The Mountain could get up to! April can't come soon enough...