For months, Game of Thrones fans have known they would be getting the new season later than usual, but now we know just how much longer we’ll have to wait.
Game of Thrones’ seventh season will debut July 16, the show announced Thursday on Facebook Live. It is known.
Before revealing the season premiere date, Game of Thrones had fans literally watching a block of ice melt with fire—prompted by typing “fire” into the comments—for more than an hour in three separate Facebook Live videos. Fans quickly snarked at the absurdity of the stunt while acknowledging the genius of all. For better or for worse, Game of Thrones got thousands of fans to watch a livestream of ice melting.
https://twitter.com/michejaw/status/839914555325169665
https://twitter.com/alex_abads/status/839916817976012800
Where were you when the ice melted?
— Eric Goldman (@TheEricGoldman) March 9, 2017
The whole stunt was worth it for this comment alone: pic.twitter.com/Abmh4Mr038
— Scott Tobias (@scott_tobias) March 9, 2017
HBO rn: So people will watch anything EXCEPT for #Vinyl. Got it.
— Jarett Wieselman (@JarettSays) March 9, 2017
The season premiere announcement comes as Game of Thrones is set to make its first major publicity push for season 7, beginning at SXSW in Austin, Texas. It already debuted the first poster for season 7, which features a mixture of ice and fire, on buses around Austin. While fans snapped photos earlier in the week, a high-resolution poster was released online Wednesday night.
Get a load of the first official teaser poster for #GameofThrones season 7! https://t.co/J3SWeRRGzi pic.twitter.com/padYij5e7N
— Winter is Coming (@WiCnet) March 9, 2017
A tease to the Facebook Live video announcement also played on ice and fire colliding and introduced the tagline: “Fear is for the winter.”
Fear the winter.
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) March 9, 2017
Join us today on @Facebook Live at 2PM ET to help reveal the #GoTS7 premiere date: https://t.co/WusLWlZf9F #GameofThrones pic.twitter.com/Fsl4vQyJiT
The great war is here. #GoTS7 premieres 7.16. pic.twitter.com/1Jna10kNuQ
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) March 9, 2017
The season 6 finale left us with plenty of threads to explore in the upcoming season, which will have seven episodes instead of the usual 10. Jon Snow was just named King in the North; Daenerys Targaryen has teamed up with Theon and Yara Greyjoy, Dorne, and Highgarden; Cersei Lannister was just crowned queen; Arya Stark just murdered Walder Frey; and Bran Stark just learned the truth about Jon’s parentage.
