‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 7 Will Feature Climactic, Emotional Battles

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It’s the beginning of the end for HBO’s wildly-popular fantasy series Game of Thrones as the seven episodes of the penultimate season rapidly approach. As the series starts to wrap things up, expect things to get bloodier and more dramatic.

The Hollywood Reporter got to speak with the some of the key cast members of Game of Thrones – Iain Glen, Gwendoline Christie, Jacob Anderson, Kit Harington, and Liam Cunningham – and they revealed in detail what they’re all excited about in the abbreviated – but eventful – season.

Glen (who portrays Jorah Mormont on the show) notes that fans should expect a variety of battles in the second-to-last season of Game of Thrones will be varied:

“There are definitely a couple of biggies, and they’re all different in flavor.”

Christie (who portrays Brienne of Tarth on the show) has said that battles might not necessarily play out in the way that some fans are expecting them to, but that they won’t be disappointed in the final season:

“What’s wonderful about the show is that it’s often very unexpected and what people are known for doesn’t necessarily transpire. You will see lots of action, but not always in the way you might initially think. But you won’t be disappointed in terms of epic scale.”

Anderson (who portrays Grey Worm on the show) noted that these battles are going to be “very big and very complex”, but also “very emotional”. Harington (who portrays Jon Snow on the show) added that the show is less focused on topping the previous season so much as it is trying set each battle apart from one another:

“It’s important that we don’t try to top anything. That’s what [director] Miguel Sapochnik said to me after ‘Hardhome,’ and before we did ‘The Battle of the Bastards.’ He said, ‘We don’t want to try to compete with something that already worked. We want to make something different.’ I think that’s a very important thing going forward… We don’t look at ‘Battle of the Bastards’ and say, ‘We have to do better than that.’ We just try to serve the story and be ambitious at the same time.”

Cunningham (who portrays Davos Seaworth on the show) was part of one of the biggest action sequences that had ever been done up until the end of the second season, and he’s clearly excited to note that the show has come a long way since then:

“If you look at the Battle of Blackwater in season two, compared to what we have now, there were limited resources at the time. We didn’t know how big and popular and profit-making this show was going to be. A lot of those profits have been put right back into the show to make it bigger. HBO certainly hasn’t sat on their asses on this thing. They’ve thrown everything, the kitchen sink, at this thing. They know it’s a beautiful piece of television people are going to be discovering for generations because it’s gorgeous.”

With only 13 episodes left in the show, the rest of the series ought move forward at breakneck speed to tie up loose ends and showcase some of the biggest and hopefully best battles that have ever been shown on HBO.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres July 16, 2017. The series stars Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Jaime Lannister, Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister, Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen, Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish, Liam Cunningham as Ser Davos Seaworth, Carice van Houten as Melisandre, Rory McCann as Sandor “The Hound” Clegane, Maisie Williams as Arya Stark, Conleth Hill as Varys, Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy, John Bradley as Samwell Tarly, Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth, Kristofer Hivju as Tormund Giantsbane, Isaac Hempstead Wright as Bran Stark, Jerome Flynn as Bronn, Iain Glen as Jorah Mormont, Hannah Murray as Gilly.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter