HBO's 'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Teaser Trailer Video Hints at a Showdown

published August 27, 2018

On Sunday night, HBO unexpectedly revealed a teaser trailer for its entire 2019 lineup—we're talking Big Little Lies and True Detective, along with a handful of others—which included some brand-new footage of Game of Thrones season eight. As Entertainment Weekly points out, the teaser trailer isn't entirely comprised of new footage—shots of the last season are interspersed with moments from season eight—but it's the first hint of what we can expect from the new season, which will be released sometime in the new year, most likely in April.

The trailer prominently features Jon Snow, played by Kit Harrington, and his sister Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner). According to EW, fans were initially confused as to whether footage of the two embracing was from this coming season or the last one—but EW confirms that it's actually from season eight, and shows a reunion between the two at Winterfell.

The clips show Jon Snow and Sansa Stark prepared to go into battle together, with the support of Daenerys Targaryen and Cersei Lannister, which is no huge surprise: Season seven's finale hinted that the White Walkers were coming for the ancient wall in King's Landing, and that a showdown with the Night King was imminent. This will be the last season of the hit show, so it's set to be the most dramatic (and bloody) yet.

Here's the full HBO footage:

Also snuck into this teaser: The first look at a stern-looking Meryl Streep in Big Little Lies season two, and Mahershala Ali in True Detective season three. There's also a preview of the new Jane Fonda documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, a Pod Saves America special, and new series' Camping (starring Jennifer Garner) and My Brilliant Friend.

Jenny is the Digital Director at Marie Claire. A graduate of Leeds University, and a native of London, she moved to New York in 2012 to attend the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She was the first intern at Bustle when it launched in 2013 and spent five years building out its news and politics department. In 2018 she joined Marie Claire, where she held the roles of Deputy Digital Editor and Director of Content Strategy before becoming Digital Director. Working closely with Marie Claire's exceptional editorial, audience, commercial, and e-commerce teams, Jenny oversees the brand's digital arm, with an emphasis on driving readership. When she isn't editing or knee-deep in Google Analytics, you can find Jenny writing about television, celebrities, her lifelong hate of umbrellas, or (most likely) her dog, Captain. In her spare time, she writes fiction: her first novel, the thriller EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD, was published with Minotaur Books (UK) and Little, Brown (US) in February 2024 and became a USA Today bestseller. She has also written extensively about developmental coordination disorder, or dyspraxia , which she was diagnosed with when she was nine.