Three months!!!! That’s all!!! Three months until the premiere of Season 5 of Game of Thrones!!! It doesn’t feel like much time as passed since season four reached its bloody conclusion. But now, here we are getting ready for a new season that promises to be quite the reboot for our characters in Westeros and beyond the Narrow Sea. I plan on writing several entries in the near future reviewing the previous season and providing some important background information for the events that are to occur this upcoming season. But first, let’s catch-up on some of the news that has come out over the last couple of months regarding our favorite HBO fantasy drama.
Premiere date announced for Season 5!!!
Contrary to many reports that Season 5’s premiere would be delayed because of editing issues, Game of Thrones’ new season will begin on its usual early April start date, April 12th.
Special IMAX showing of last season’s final two episodes January 23rd-29th
At first reading, this sounds very exciting. Seeing the battle at the wall in episode 9 get the IMAX treatment would be amazing (imagine watching that giant scythe slicing through wildlings on the large IMAX screen). And also included with (I assume sometime after) this showing is a special preview of Season 5. Sounds great, except that this time last year, HBO released a trailer that was shown on their network and then released online for free the next day previewing season 4. Does this mean we only get the trailer for season 5 if we fork out the money to see two episodes we’ve already seen? I hope not. But I will be keeping an eye out for this preview around the time of its release hoping that it pops up somewhere online for my analysis. And speaking of previews…
HBO releases ten second preview of new season
Don’t get too excited. Here’s the “preview” in its entirety.
That’s it. Arya wakes up and a door opens. Mind Blown!!! It would have been better for HBO to release nothing than this lame teaser. Better (though just as brief) teasers appeared in HBO’s end of 2014/preview of 2015 montage presented here (the GoT scenes begin at 1:38).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IMLt-fRIuw
Most important of these preview scenes are Tyrion with a full grown beard and hooded face. He appears to be fully undercover after the events that ended last season. Also, Arya appears to have just stepped off a boat on the other end of the sea she was floating across at the end of last season. The other two scenes say little about the upcoming plot. Cersei walking determinedly is nothing new. But I was glad to see John and Olly (who appears to have grown about three feet since he was last seen killing Ygritte with his bow and arrow) together at the Wall.
Bran will not appear in the fifth season
Because his story is now caught up with the source material, Bran and his not so merry band will not be appearing in the fifth season. Though I did find it odd that HBO is using the three-eyed raven (the shriveled up old guy in the tree that Bran reached last season) as part of the marketing for the
upcoming season despite Bran not being a part of things. Not sure what that’s about, but this also means no Hodor for season five as well .
HBO schedules “A Day in the Life” special for GoT February 8th
Little information is available as to what the show entails, but scroll your cable/satellite tv guide page to this part of the schedule and this 28 minute special appears. I suspect this will also be used to provide more buzz for the upcoming season and (hopefully) a more revealing trailer.
And in closing…
Game of Thrones again denied the Golden Globe for Best Drama.
Something called “The Affair” took the prize this year. The only thing I know about the show is Jimmy McNulty from the Wire (strongly recommend this show if you haven’t watched it) stars and somebody cheats on somebody else (I used my very strong inferring skills from the title to figure this out). I don’t want to judge the show without having seen it, but how can a drama about a modern day affair compare to a giant scythe chopping up Wildlings?
(Editor’s note: This article was written by 4LN’s resident GoT expert, Jeff Merrick.)