In a bumper issue on the final season of the television series Game of Thrones, the American magazine Entertainment Weekly has revealed that one of the episodes will have “the longest consecutive battle sequence ever committed to film” and will involve the “largest number of major characters together since the show’s debut episode in 2011”.

The report from the sets of the shoot in April 2018 is titled ‘Game Over’ and runs into 78 pages. Entertainment Weekly has devised 16 different covers for each of the major characters who will battle against the zombie army known as the White Walkers and decide the future of the Westeros kingdom. These include covers dedicated to Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) and The Night King, the commander of the White Walkers.

The six episodes that comprise the eighth and final season of the HBO series will be aired on April 14 on Star World and Hotstar in India. The previous seasons are being streamed on Hotstar.

The episode revolving around the battle is reportedly longer than the 40-minute Helm’s Deep siege in Peter Jackson’s movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002). It has been directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who was behind the Emmy-winning Battle of the Bastards. “This final face-off between the Army of the Dead and the army of the living is completely unprecedented and relentless...”co-executive producer Bryan Cogman told EW. The episode involved 11 weeks of night shoots in chilly conditions and at least 750 people, EW added.

Among those who will be on the battlefield is Arya Stark, played by Maisie Williams. “…nothing can prepare you for how physically draining it is,” she told EW. “It’s night after night, and again and again, and it just doesn’t stop.”

Other characters who will feature in the final season are Ser Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen), The Hound (Rory McCann) and Samwell Tarly (John Bradley).

The series finale, which will be aired on air May 19, has been directed by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who have been at the helm since the adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels went on air in April 2011. The fate of the key characters, and the question of who will sit on the Iron Throne and rule Westeros, are closely guarded secrets.

“We want people to love it,” Weiss told EW. “We also know no matter what we do, even if it’s the optimal version, that a certain number of people will hate the best of all possible versions.”

Benioff told EW that he plans on being “very drunk” and “very far from the internet” after the season ends.

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Game of Thrones final season teaser.

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