'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Leak Reveals a Surprising Season 7 Survivor
We'll be seeing some familiar faces we haven't seen in awhile.
A semi-official cast listing for the Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere might’ve just revealed which characters we’ll see in the first episode of the final GoT season.
On Thursday, Watchers on the Wall noticed what’s probably an accurate cast listing for the Season 8 premiere, provided by analyzing the program details on HBO’s official schedule. It also shows a runtime of exactly 60 minutes, lining up with earlier leaks.
Perhaps best of all is a quasi-confirmation that Tormund (Kristofer Hivju) and Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) survived the Wall collapsing onto them at the end of Season 7. It was impossible to tell as the Wall was destroyed by the Night King’s new undead ice dragon, but it sure seemed like Tormund and Beric would’ve been buried under all that rubble. With Thoros of Myr dead, Beric probably won’t ever be resurrected again, making him more vulnerable than ever.
We’ve previously speculated that these two survived the attack on the Wall. And the script for the Season 7 finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf,” explicitly states that they “run for their lives and disappear from view,” therefore implying those lives are preserved.
So we can probably take this as confirmation that the unlikely duo lives.
Are Tormund and Beric really still alive?
Other surprising returns include Gemma Whelan, who plays the Yara Greyjoy, rightful ruler of the Iron Islands. She was captured by her uncle Euron last season, and her brother Theon made plans to rescue her. Who knows if he’ll be able to make that happen.
There’s also actor Lino Facioli, who plays Robin Arryn, the puppet prince of the Vale. He’s technically the “Lord” but he’s basically a puppet. Littlefinger had been acting as his Lord Protector, essentially assuming all of the power under the guise that he was protecting Robin. Instead, Littlefinger simply wanted the power for himself with the intent of manipulating and wooing Sansa Stark.
Since the Stark sisters killed Littlefinger towards the end of Season 7, there’s something of a power vacuum. The Starks will need to preserve the Vale’s allegiance. Politically speaking, that could mean Game of Thrones might establish a marriage alliance between Robin and either Sansa or Arya.
Ew!
Robin isn't a little boy anymore, but he's probably still odd.
Carice van Houten’s Red Witch Melisandre also makes a return. She was last seen heading to Volantis early in Season 7, when she was very vocal that her fate was to die in Westeros. She also told Arya way back in Season 3 that they would meet again. Mind you, Melisandre is on Arya’s infamous murder list because she kidnapped Gendry that one time. Jon and Davos Seaworth also hate her these days. So chances seem high that Arya is totally gonna kill the Red Witch before Game of Thrones Season 8 is through.
In all of this, the most surprising return of all is that of Tobias Menzies’s Edmure Tully. Fans might’ve forgotten him entirely, but this is Catelyn Stark’s lame brother. His wedding to Roslin Frey was the Red Wedding. Edmure was confirmed still alive in Season 6, imprisoned by Walder Frey for that whole time. Theoretically, he was still behind bars when Arya killed all the Freys at the start of Season 7, and he might very well still be there.Technically, he’s the sole remaining Lord of the Riverlands, so if he were freed he’d be in charge of a large section of Westeros.
The many moving pieces in the final Game of Thrones season are starting to come together, and we can’t wait to see how all of this plays out.
Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres Sunday, April 14, 2019 on HBO at 9 p.m. Eastern.
