Game of Thrones’ seventh season will premiere mid-July

Game of Thrones’ highly anticipated seventh season will premiere on July 16, HBO announced today.

The announcement was made during a Facebook Live event today, which featured fans typing the word “FIRE” into the comments section on a Facebook Live feed to get a block of ice containing the premiere date to melt. Prior to the announcement, HBO had confirmed the show would premiere in the summer, a few months later than when it usually does.

Back in July, showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff said the reason the show was delayed was due to logistics: Now that winter had finally arrived in Westeros, they had to film later in the day and year to capture the dark, grimy essence of the season. Up until now, Game of Thrones has taken place in a perpetual summer, making it easier to release the show every year around April.

HBO

This will be Game of Thrones’ penultimate season, and it will also be shorter than normal. Usually, Game of Thrones runs for 10 episodes, but Weiss and Benioff have said in the past they would like the seventh and eighth seasons of the series to run for 15 episodes in total.

Last season ended with a couple of realizations and confirmations to big questions, including Jon Snow’s true parentage and Cersei’s role in King’s Landing. More information on the seventh season will be released as the premiere date moves closer.

All six seasons of Game of Thrones are available to stream through HBO Go and HBO Now.