At long, last our first specific information regarding the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere date has been revealed. HBO has dropped a new teaser video of sorts for Game of Thones’s final season, and while it doesn’t feature any new footage, it does showcase the long and wintry road that has led us to the impending conclusion, which—as revealed in the video—will begin in April 2019.

This was somewhat expected. We knew Game of Thrones Season 8 would be premiering sometime in the first half of 2019, and given that HBO has True Detective Season 3 premiering in January, we presumed Thrones would be following shortly thereafter. The April Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere date is a return to form for the wildly popular series, which had its series debut on April 17, 2011 and stuck with that spring premiere date until 2017's Season 7, when a delay in production bumped the show’s premiere date to July.

This upcoming final season consists of just six episodes so it’ll be a short-lived cycle, although no doubt every single episode will be picked over and discussed at length once the time comes. That’s actually rather exciting, as the trend towards streaming has made the idea of a “watercooler show” all but extinct—everyone’s watching different stuff, and even when they’re watching the same stuff, no one’s ever on the same episode. With Game of Thrones Season 8, fans will be making sure to watch every episode live so the twists and turns don’t get spoiled for them before they’ve had a chance to experience them for themselves.

So there we have it. Game of Thrones Season 8 will premiere in April 2019. Gird your loins. Winter is coming.

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For more on Game of Thrones Season 8, peruse links to our recent coverage below:

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Image via HBO
game-of-thrones-season-8-arya-sansa
Image via HBO
game-of-thrones-season-7-finale-zombie-dragon
Image via HBO
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Image via HBO