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.