Most seasons of HBO’s Game of Thrones arrived in the spring. Meaning if this were most of the other years the show has been on the air, we’d be excitedly enjoying or about to be enjoying a new season. But that wasn’t the case last year and is especially not the case for the next season. Season eight. The final season.

Season seven didn’t begin until July of 2017, and was only seven episodes long instead of the usual ten episodes. Season eight will be even less episodes, and the wait will be even more excruciating as we must endure well over a year of anticipation before the grand finale arrives.

But the new season is coming, eventually. And it sounds like it’s going to be every bit as epic as fans are expecting it to be. For example, it was revealed recently that one single battle sequence took an astonishing 55 NIGHTS to film. More on this below.

This information was shared by Jonathan Quinlan, who’s been an assistant director on numerous episodes of Game of Thrones. He shared a post on Instagram with a special thank you note to those who worked hard on the sequence from the producers. It read:

This is for the Night Dragons.

For enduring 55 straight nights. For enduring the cold, the snow, the rain, the mud, the sheep shit of Toome and the winds of Magheramorne.

When tens of millions of people around the world watch this episode a year from now, they won’t know how hard you worked. They won’t care how tired you were or how tough it was to do your job in sub-freezing temperatures.

They’ll just understand that they’re watching something that’s never been done before.

And that’s because of you.

Thank you
The Producer Types

Quinlan also added his own note, saying “Says it all. 55 consecutive nights. 11 weeks. 3 locations. You’ll never again see anything like it.”

That Instagram post ended up being deleted, so it’s likely something HBO didn’t want out there just yet. But a screenshot of the note was grabbed by Watchers on the Wall before it was pulled. Personally I don’t know why this is information they wouldn’t want known. It makes me even more excited for the final season. Something I did not think was humanly possible. That and it will help me to better appreciate the massive amount of work that was put into making it happen.

Oh, and just a little comparison to give you a better idea of how crazy a 55-night shoot for one battle sequence is: the battle seen in the fan-favorite episode “The Battle of the Bastards” took 25 days to film.

Game of Thrones season eight will run for only six episodes, and will premiere sometime in 2019. You can find more on the show right here, including info on the potential spinoffs being developed.

[Source: via Complex]

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