With the premiere just under three weeks away, HBO just dropped the second trailer for Season 7 of their wildly successful high fantasy series, Game Of Thrones.
The trailer opens with Sansa Stark wandering through a snowy woods, Littlefinger narrates overhead, telling some offscreen character, perhaps Sansa herself, to fight battles on all fronts, not just one enemy. After that we flash to the gate of The Wall being opened, cut to John Snow, dressed in Wildling furs, probably somewhere beyond The Wall. The trailer then moves right to King’s Landing, its citizens seemingly on the verge of revolt. Cersei, now Queen, looks stern, shrouded in shadow presumably somewhere deep inside the Red Keep. There is a very brief shot of a confident Daenerys Targaryen, strutting through a dilapidated palace, casually running a hand over a large military map of Westeros. A quick shot of a surprised Arya riding a horse is then followed by a shot of Jaime Lannister from behind, giving no context to their scenes.
The most appropriate character shot comes after as we see Littlefinger, only his face visible in dim light, looking on with the most devious smile as though he is witnessing a murder he has carefully orchestrated. Someone is sharpening a sword and then we move onto Daenerys, once again walking alone through a rocky landscape with an air of utmost confidence. At this point Jon Snow jumps in with narration talking about how the Houses used to fight together, over more shots of Daenerys walking through ruined palaces. There’s a shot of a dragon flying over a lake and at this point it becomes clear that Daenerys is in Dragonstone, the seat of the Targaryens when they ruled Westeros.
Tyrion Lannister stands on the sloping coast of a cliff looking gravely towards the distance, possibly towards Dragonstone. After that we get a shot of Theon Greyjoy standing in the dark, looking ready to fight, fire lighting his face. Then Greyworm, Daenery’s general and head of the Unsullied, leads a party of boats towards the mouth of a cave, his helmet on as he nods a command towards someone off screen. Brienne and faithful Podrick stand in the courtyard of Castle Black, looking ready to defend it. As the music swells there are a flurry of shots including, the Hound, an Unsullied being shot down, a platoon of archers launching a volley, a fiery naval battle at night, a large flying unkindness of ravens, capped with a shot of Bran Stark snapping out of a trance in front of Ser Davos Seaworth.
One of the more striking and noteworthy shots is of Beric Dondarrion, six time revenant and leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners, hoisting up a sword only to have the blade spontaneously burst into flames. This is quickly followed by the site of a large army of Greyjoy ships bearing down perhaps upon King’s Landing.
Again we get a flurry of action shots and characters looking serious. A bunch of Unsullied storm a city gate, again suggesting that this season will finally unleash the Targaryen terror upon the captial. One of the dragons stands tall, leaning forward, mouth slightly open as though it is preparing to roast someone.
As the trailer closes, it quiets and through the thick snow we see a small band of Brother’s of the Night’s Watch standing in a circle, facing out, swords drawn. Sansa briefly narrates, telling of snow and wolves sounding like a parable for winter or perhaps destruction.
There is not a lot given away in this trailer other than the fact that there will be a lot of fighting between the houses. But that is one of the strengths here. This is all intrigue with very little information. This season, as with next season, will be short as it has been reported that production costs were much much higher. And it shows in the trailer. The sheer scale of the action and set pieces bring to mind the care payed The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. The acting is incredible, the scenery is beautiful and transporting, and the action is thrilling and most of all intriguing. Game Of Thrones has been going strong for six seasons and this looks sure to be another grand-slam.
