Game of Thrones bosses tease importance of the Wall in season 7

Game of Thrones just ended its sixth season on Sunday, but that hasn't stopped fans from speculating what the next season has in store. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss sat down with Deadline yesterday to offer some insight into what they have planned for the next, shorter season, and mentioned how important a role the Wall will play next spring.

Warning: This post will contain some spoilers for what happened during the season finale that aired on Sunday.

Now that certain evils have been done away with — Ramsay Bolton has been defeated in the North, for example — the biggest question is who the next major villain will be. The stage is set for a major war between Daenerys Targaryen, the Starks and Cersei Lannister in King's Landing, but there are still other, more demonic forces at play that have to be addressed. One of those forces includes the White Walkers who lay just beyond the Wall and the Night King that leads them.

When Benjen Stark rescued Bran from the White Walkers, he told Bran he couldn't go with him beyond the Wall because it was more than just ice and rocks. Fans have speculated for quite some time about the Horn of Joramun, which would give the White Walkers the power to topple the Wall, and while Benioff didn't confirm its existence, he said there's still quite a bit people don't know about the Wall that the writers are going to explore.

"What is laid out in this season is, very clearly, that the wall isn't just a physical structure keeping the army of the dead out," Benioff told Deadline. "If the Wildlings managed to make it over, which they have, and the Night King has so much more in the way of both power and troops who'll do literally anything he says...we'll keep it at that for now."

Benioff added that he couldn't give away too much information because it would impact both fans of the show and book readers, but said that the Night King will have a major role going forward.

Game of Thrones' seventh season will premiere next spring on HBO. For more on the season six finale, read our explainer on its massive Jon Snow reveal.

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