We're a year away from the final season of Game of Thrones, the TV juggernaut whose heights we won't probably see again for a long time (unless Amazon's $1 billion Lord of the Rings gamble pays off like Jeff Bezos is hoping), and the series' eighth and final season is already setting new records. According to an Instagram post by Game of Thrones AD Jonathan Quinlan, the series just completed an astonishing 55-night shoot for a massive battle sequence.

Quinlan said in his caption, “Says it all. 55 consecutive nights. 11 weeks. 3 locations. You’ll never again see anything like it.” The account is now set to private and the post has been deleted -- who can blame him -- but thanks to the fan site Watchers on the Wall, here's the image of the original post (remember folks, nothing on the Internet is ever gone forever!)

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Image via Watchers on the Wall from Jonathan Quinlan's Instagram

For context, two and a half months of shooting for a single scene is more than some indie movies get in total. And in Game of Thrones terms, that's twice as much time as was spent on the Battle of the Bastards and the Loot Train ambush, each of which took about a month, and likely broke TV records even then. So this ...

To say this shoot sounds arduous is to downplay the massive scope of what the show is looking to accomplish in this final season, as well as the dedication and hard work of the crew. Most likely, the battle (seeing as how it was filmed at night) will be related to the Night King (of course) and revolving around a Battle for Winterfell. I expect some major badassery, zombie ice dragon vs regular fire dragon (with that other poor, forgotten dragon also in play), tons of deaths, and probably one of the most ambitious episodes to ever air on television.

In a year.

Hold tight, we'll get there! In the meantime, check out a few other tidbits from the last few months of reporting on this epic final season:

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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO
game-of-thrones-season-7-finale-zombie-dragon
Image via HBO
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Image via HBO
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Image via HBO