Country of origin United States | Original network HBO | |
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The seventh season of the fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones is set to premiere on HBO on July 16, 2017. Unlike previous seasons that all consisted of ten episodes, the seventh season will consist of only seven episodes. Like the previous season, it will largely consist of original content currently not found in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, but also adapts material from the upcoming sixth and seventh novels The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. The series is adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
Contents
HBO ordered the seventh season on April 21, 2016, just three days before the premiere of the show's sixth season, and began filming on August 31, 2016. The season was filmed primarily in Northern Ireland, Spain, and Iceland.
Game of Thrones features a large ensemble cast, including Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington. The season will introduce a number of new cast members, including Jim Broadbent and Tom Hopper.
Crew
Series creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss will serve as showrunners for the seventh season. The directors for the seventh season are Alan Taylor, Jeremy Podeswa, Mark Mylod and Matt Shakman. Shakman is a first-time Game of Thrones director, with the rest each having directed multiple episodes in previous seasons. Michele Clapton will return to the show as costume designer, after spending some time away from the show in the sixth season. She previously worked on the show for the first five seasons, as well as the end of the sixth season.
Writing
Depending upon the release of George R. R. Martin's forthcoming The Winds of Winter, the seventh season may comprise original material not found, or not yet found, in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. In June 2016, Martin wrote on his blog that he had met with publishers, editors and HBO, while in New York City. According to previous reports, some of the show's sixth season had consisted of material revealed to the writers of the television series during discussions with Martin.
Filming
Filming began on August 31, 2016, at Titanic Studios in Belfast, and ended in February 2017. In an interview with the showrunners, it was announced that the filming of the seventh season would be delayed until later in the year due to necessary weather conditions for filming. The showrunners stated "We're starting a bit later because, you know, at the end of this season, winter is here, and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes any more. We kind of pushed everything down the line so we could get some grim, gray weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot."
Girona, Spain will not be returning as one of the filming locations. Girona stood in for Braavos and parts of King's Landing. It was later announced that the seventh season will film in Northern Ireland, Spain and Iceland, with filming in Northern Ireland beginning in August 2016. The series will film in the Spanish cities Seville, Cáceres, Almodovar del Rio, Santiponce, Zumaia and Bermeo. Spanish sources announced that the series would be filming the seventh season on Muriola Beach in Barrika, Las Atarazanas, the Royal Dockyards of Seville and at the shores of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, an islet belonging to the city of Bermeo. The series will return to film at The Dark Hedges in Stranocum, which was previously used as the Kingsroad in the second season. Some scenes will be filmed in Iceland.
Casting
Deadline reported on June 21, 2016, that the five main cast members, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington had been in contract negotiations for the final two seasons. It was reported that the cast members have increased their salary to $500,000 per episode for the seventh and eighth season. It was later reported that the actors had gone through a renegotiation, for which they had increased their salary to $1.1 million per episode for the last two seasons. On August 31, 2016, Entertainment Weekly reported that Jim Broadbent had been cast for the seventh season in a "significant" role. It was announced that the role of Dickon Tarly has been recast, with Tom Hopper replacing Freddie Stroma, who had previously played the role in "Blood of My Blood". After some speculation, UFC President Dana White announced that Conor McGregor would appear in a cameo role in the seventh season. However, in January 2017, McGregor confirmed it was a rumor. Members of the British indie pop band Bastille were reported to have filmed cameo appearances.
Episodes
On April 21, 2016, HBO officially ordered the seventh season of Game of Thrones, just three days prior to the premiere of the show's sixth season. According to an interview with co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the seventh season would likely consist of fewer episodes, stating at the time of the interview that they were "down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We're heading into the final lap." Director Jack Bender, who worked on the show's sixth season, said that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes. Benioff and Weiss stated that they were unable to produce 10 episodes in the show's usual 12 to 14 month time frame, as Weiss said "It's crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule." HBO confirmed on July 18, 2016, that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes, and would premiere later than usual in mid-2017 because of the later filming schedule.
Promotion
On July 23, 2016, a teaser production trailer was released by HBO at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. The trailer mostly consisted of voice overs, and shots of crew members creating sets and props. The first footage from the season was revealed in a new promotional video released by HBO highlighting its new and returning original shows for the coming year on November 28, 2016, showcasing Jon Snow, Sansa Stark and Arya Stark.
On March 1, 2017, HBO and Game of Thrones teamed up with Major League Baseball (MLB) for a cross-promotional partnership. At least 19 individual teams on MLB will participate with this promotions. Teams that are set to participate includes Arizona Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals. On March 8, 2017, HBO released the first promotional poster for the season ahead of the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, which teases the battle of "ice vs. fire". Showrunners Benioff and Weiss are set to be feature speakers for the event along with fellow cast members Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams.
On March 9, 2017, HBO hosted a live stream on the Game of Thrones Facebook page that revealed the premiere date for the seventh season as being July 16, 2017. It was accompanied by a teaser trailer.
Music
Ramin Djawadi is set to return as the composer of the show for the seventh season.