The seventh season of the fantasydrama television series Game of Thrones premiered on HBO on July 16, 2017, and concluded on August 27, 2017.[1][2][3] Unlike previous seasons, which consisted of ten episodes each, the seventh season consisted of only seven episodes.[4] Like the previous season, it largely consisted of original content not found in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, while also incorporating material that Martin revealed to showrunners about the upcoming novels in the series.[5][better source needed] The series was adapted for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
The penultimate season focuses on the convergence of the show's main plots in preparation for the final season. Daenerys Targaryen arrives in Westeros with her army and three large dragons and begins to wage war against the Lannisters, who have defeated her allies in the south and west of Westeros. Jon Snow leaves Sansa in charge of Winterfell and visits Daenerys to secure her help to defeat the White Walkers and the Army of the Dead. He mines the dragonglass at Dragonstone and begins a romance with Daenerys. Arya and Bran (now the Three-Eyed Raven) return home to Winterfell; the Starks execute the treacherous Littlefinger. Tyrion persuades Daenerys not to destroy King's Landing, reminding her that she does not want to be simply a queen of ashes. Instead, Jon goes north of the wall to capture a wight to prove to Cersei that the fearsome army of the dead exist and are coming; in doing so, his group is pinned down and nearly killed. Daenerys rescues them with her dragons but the Night King kills one of her dragons and makes it part of his army. The undead dragon later destroys part of the Wall and the dead march through. Bran learns that Jon is really his cousin, Aegon Targaryen, the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne.
At the Twins, Arya, disguised as Walder Frey, poisons the remaining lords of House Frey. The White Walkers march toward the Wall. Edd receives Bran and Meera at Castle Black. At Winterfell, Sansa objects when Jon accepts the loyalties of Houses Umber and Karstark, whose previous leaders supported Ramsay. Queen Cersei demands that the North bend the knee. At the Citadel, Samwell "borrows" restricted library books, learning there is a large deposit of dragonglass at Dragonstone; he sends word to Jon. Sam finds Jorah, now heavily infected with greyscale, quarantined in a cell. In the Riverlands, Arya meets some friendly Lannister soldiers, and "jokingly" claims she will kill Cersei. The Hound begins to believe in the Lord of Light after Thoros shows him a fiery vision of the Wall and the Army of the Dead. In King's Landing, Jaime tells Cersei they crucially need allies. Euron arrives to propose marriage in exchange for his Iron Fleet and an opportunity to kill Theon and Yara. Cersei declines over his untrustworthiness; Euron promises to return with a gift that will prove his loyalty. Daenerys arrives at Dragonstone, House Targaryen's ancestral home, with her army and large dragons.
Daenerys heeds Tyrion's advice not to take King's Landing by force, which would kill thousands. Yara's fleet is sent to Sunspear to transport the Dornish army to lay siege to King's Landing alongside the Tyrell forces; the Unsullied are to take Casterly Rock. Daenerys challenges Varys' loyalty and threatens to burn him alive if he ever betrays her. Melisandre arrives and encourages Daenerys to invite Jon Snow to Dragonstone, saying he is integral to the war. Grey Worm and Missandei consummate their relationship. Cersei summons several lords, demanding their fealty, while Jaime offers to elevate Randyll Tarly as Warden of the South. Qyburn shows Cersei a prototype ballista capable of killing dragons. Arya is reunited with Hot Pie, who tells her the Boltons are dead and Jon is now King in the North. She resets course for Winterfell. Jon sets sails for Dragonstone to request Daenerys' help against the White Walkers, leaving Sansa in charge at Winterfell. He warns Littlefinger to never touch Sansa. Sam performs a forbidden surgery on Jorah's greyscale infection. Euron's fleet attacks Yara's, killing Obara and Nymeria and capturing Ellaria, Tyene, and Yara. Theon, experiencing flashbacks as Reek, jumps overboard.
Jon arrives at Dragonstone. He refuses Daenerys’ demands to bend the knee, and instead asks her help fighting the Army of the Dead. On Tyrion's advice, Daenerys allows Jon to mine the island's dragonglass. Melisandre avoids Jon and departs for Volantis, telling Varys she will return to Westeros. Bran, with Meera, arrives at Winterfell and reveals his new Three-Eyed Raven identity to Sansa. In King's Landing, Euron presents Ellaria and Tyene as gifts to Cersei, who promises him marriage after the war is won. She makes him commander of her navy. Cersei administers the same poison to Tyene that killed Myrcella; Ellaria will watch her daughter die and remain imprisoned with the body. A healed Jorah leaves Oldtown to find Daenerys. Ebrose praises Sam's skill in saving Jorah then makes him copy old texts for his disobedience. Grey Worm and the Unsullied attack Casterly Rock but discover that Jaime has led the bulk of the Lannister forces to attack Highgarden, while Euron's fleet ambushes and destroys the Unsullied's ships. The Lannister forces quickly overwhelm Olenna Tyrell's army. Jaime offers Olenna a quick and painless death by poison. After drinking it, she reveals she poisoned Joffrey.
Arya returns to Winterfell and is reunited with Sansa and Bran. Littlefinger presents Bran with the Valyrian steel dagger his would-be assassin used. Bran gives the dagger to Arya. Bran bids a homeward-bound Meera an unemotional farewell, explaining he is no longer Bran. Arya spars with Brienne, impressing her and amazing Sansa with her exceptional fighting skills. Cersei assures the Iron Bank full repayment of the Lannister's debt as a wagon train carrying gold from Highgarden travels to King's Landing. In a cave filled with dragonglass, Jon reveals ancient wall paintings to Daenerys depicting the First Men and the Children of the Forest joining forces against the undead. Daenerys learns that the attack on Casterly Rock was a diversion and Lannister forces have captured Highgarden. Ignoring Tyrion's protests, Daenerys rides Drogon as the Dothraki cavalry launches a surprise attack on the Lannister army, decimating it and capturing its remaining forces. Drogon is slightly wounded when Bronn fires a bolt from Qyburn's new scorpion ballista weapon, but he and Daenerys land safely. Jaime's desperate charge on horseback at a vulnerable Daenerys is thwarted by Drogon spewing fire. Bronn tackles Jaime into a river, saving him.
Jaime and Bronn return to King's Landing. Daenerys offers the surviving Lannister soldiers the choice to bend the knee or death. Randyll Tarly and his son, Dickon, refuse her offer, and against Tyrion's advice, Daenerys has Drogon incinerate them. Jorah is reunited with Daenerys at Dragonstone. Maester Wolkan alerts Jon and the Citadel about the wights approaching Eastwatch. Jon proposes capturing a wight beyond the Wall to prove their existence and convince Cersei to accept a temporary alliance. Davos smuggles Tyrion inside King's Landing to secretly meet with Jaime to propose an armistice. Cersei accepts, and she also informs Jaime she is pregnant with their child. While in King's Landing, Davos finds Gendry and takes him back to Dragonstone. With the Citadel ignoring Maester Wolkan's warning letter, Sam, frustrated, leaves the Citadel with Gilly and Little Sam, taking several restricted books with him. At Winterfell, Littlefinger, knowing Arya is spying on him, lures her into finding the letter that Sansa was forced to write as a hostage in King's Landing. Jon, Jorah, and Gendry take the Hound, Thoros, Beric, Tormund and a group of the Free Folk from Eastwatch North beyond the Wall to capture a wight.
At Winterfell, Littlefinger schemes to isolate Sansa. Tensions between Arya and Sansa increase after Arya discovers the letter Sansa was forced to write, begging for Robb's fealty to Joffrey. Sansa, in turn, finds Arya's collection of faces from Braavos. At Dragonstone, Tyrion counsels Daenerys about the upcoming negotiations with Cersei. Beyond the Wall, Jon and the men hunt for a wight to prove the White Walkers' existence. After capturing one, the group is beset by the White Walker army but not before Jon sends Gendry to Eastwatch to dispatch a raven to Daenerys requesting help. During the night, an injured Thoros freezes to death. As the wight army is about to overwhelm Jon's group, Daenerys arrives with her dragons, destroying many wights. The Night King, the White Walkers' leader, kills Viserion, one of Daenerys' dragons, with an ice spear. Daenerys flies off with the men, but is unable to rescue Jon. Benjen Stark intervenes and sacrifices himself to save Jon. When Jon and Daenerys are reunited, Jon pledges himself and the North to Daenerys as Queen. The Night King reanimates Viserion, making the dragon a part of his army.
The wight is presented to the Lannister court. Cersei demands Jon's neutrality, but she storms off when Jon upholds his oath to Daenerys. Tyrion meets with Cersei, apparently gaining her alliance. Cersei reveals to Jaime that she instead will use the Golden Company of Braavos to secure her hold on Westeros and allow the White Walkers to destroy Daenerys and Jon's armies. Disgusted, Jaime rides north to warn Jon and Daenerys. At Dragonstone, Theon wins his men's respect and leads them to rescue Yara. Aboard a North-bound ship, Jon seeks out Daenerys, and they become lovers. At Winterfell, Littlefinger works to increase dissent between Arya and Sansa. Sansa, Arya, and Bran publicly accuse Littlefinger of murdering Jon and Lysa Arryn and of treason against their father. Deserted by the Lords of the Vale, Littlefinger is executed by Arya. Samwell arrives and meets with Bran. Combining Sam's earlier information and Bran's vision, they realize Jon is Aegon Targaryen, the legitimate heir to the Iron Throne. Jon's parents, Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, secretly married. At Eastwatch, the Night King, astride the undead Viserion, blasts a hole through the Wall with blue dragon fire; the Army of the Dead marches through.
Series creators and executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss serve as showrunners for the seventh season. The directors for the seventh season are Jeremy Podeswa (episodes 1 and 7), Mark Mylod (episodes 2 and 3), Matt Shakman (episodes 4 and 5) and Alan Taylor (episode 6). This marks Taylor's return to the series after an absence since the second season. Shakman is a first-time Game of Thrones director, with the rest each having directed multiple episodes in previous seasons.[36]Michele Clapton returned to the show as costume designer, after spending some time away from the show in the sixth season. She previously worked on the show for the first five seasons, as well as the end of the sixth season.[36]
Writing
The seventh season contains original material not found in the A Song of Ice and Fire series.[37][needs update] Some of the show's sixth season also consists of material revealed to the writers of the television series during discussions with Martin.[38]
Filming
Filming began on August 31, 2016, at Titanic Studios in Belfast,[39] and ended in February 2017.[40][41][42] In an interview with the showrunners, it was announced that the filming of the seventh season would be delayed until later in the year due to necessary weather conditions for filming. The showrunners stated "We're starting a bit later because, you know, at the end of this season, winter is here, and that means that sunny weather doesn't really serve our purposes any more. We kind of pushed everything down the line so we could get some grim, gray weather even in the sunnier places that we shoot."[43]
Girona, Spain, did not return as one of the filming locations.[44] Girona stood in for Braavos and parts of King's Landing.[44] It was later announced that the seventh season would film in Northern Ireland, Spain and Iceland, with filming in Northern Ireland beginning in August 2016.[4][40] The series filmed in the Spanish cities Seville, Cáceres, Almodóvar del Río, Santiponce, Zumaia and Bermeo.[45] Spanish sources announced that the series would be filming the seventh season on Muriola Beach in Barrika, Las Atarazanas, the Royal Dockyards of Seville and at the shores of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe, an islet belonging to the city of Bermeo.[46][47][48] The series returned to film at The Dark Hedges in Stranocum, which was previously used as the Kingsroad in the second season.[49] Some scenes were filmed in Iceland.[50] Filming also occurred in Dubrovnik, Croatia, which is used for location of King's Landing.[51] The scene where Arya was reunited with Nymeria was filmed in Alberta, Canada.[52]
Casting
Deadline reported on June 21, 2016, that the five main cast members, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, and Kit Harington had been in contract negotiations for the final two seasons. It was reported that the cast members have increased their salary to $500,000 per episode for the seventh and eighth season.[53][54] It was later reported that the actors had gone through a renegotiation, for which they had increased their salary to $1.1 million per episode for the last two seasons.[55]
On April 21, 2016, HBO officially ordered the seventh season of Game of Thrones, just three days prior to the premiere of the show's sixth season.[60] In a June 2016 interview with Variety, co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss revealed the seventh season would likely consist of fewer episodes, stating at the time of the interview that they were "down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We're heading into the final lap."[61][62] Director Jack Bender, who worked on the show's sixth season, said that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes.[63] Benioff and Weiss stated that they were unable to produce 10 episodes in the show's usual 12 to 14 month time frame, as Weiss said "It's crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule."[61] HBO confirmed on July 18, 2016, that the seventh season would consist of seven episodes, and would premiere later than usual in mid-2017 because of the later filming schedule.[4] Later it was confirmed that the season would debut on July 16.[64] The seventh season includes an 81-minute finale;[65] this was the series' longest episode until it was surpassed by the Season 8 episode "The Long Night", which is 82 minutes. Season 7's penultimate episode also runs for 71 minutes – around 16 minutes longer than an average Game of Thrones episode. The first five episodes mostly run longer than average (55 minutes), at 59, 59, 63, 50, and 59 minutes respectively.[66] The previous longest episode in the series was the sixth-season finale, "The Winds of Winter", which ran for 69 minutes.[65]
Ramin Djawadi returned as the composer of the show for the seventh season.[67]
Reception
Critical response
Game of Thrones(season 7): Critical reception by episode
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
Season 7 (2017): Percentage of positive critics' reviews tracked by the website Rotten Tomatoes[68]
On Metacritic, the season (based on the first episode) has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[69] On Rotten Tomatoes, the seventh season has a 93% approval rating from 479 critics with an average rating of 8.2 out of 10, with the site's consensus reading, "After a year-long wait, Game of Thrones roars back with powerful storytelling and a focused interest in its central characters—particularly the female ones."[68]
The series premiere surpassed 30 million viewers across all of the network's domestic platforms weeks after its release. The show's numbers continued to climb in other countries as well. In the UK, the premiere got up to 4.7 million viewers after seven days, setting a new record for Sky Atlantic. Compared to the previous season, HBO Asia saw an increases of between 24 percent to 50 percent. HBO Latin America saw a record viewership in the region, with a 29 percent climb. In Germany, the show went up 210 percent, in Russia it climbed 40 percent and in Italy it saw a 61 percent increase.[70] In the United States, the finale was watched by 12.1 million viewers on its first airing on television, and 16.5 million when viewings on HBO Now and HBO Go apps are included. Over the season, the viewer numbers averaged at over 30 million per episode across all platforms.[71]
Viewership and ratings per episode of Game of Thrones season 7
Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama series
Tim Kimmel, Paula Fairfield, Tim Hands, Paul Bercovitch, Bradley C. Katona, John Matter, Brett Voss, David Klotz, Jeffrey Wilhoit, Dylan T. Wilhoit (for "The Spoils of War")
Nominated
Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Series
Onnalee Blank, Mathew Waters, Richard Dyer, Ronan Hill (for "Beyond the Wall")
Won
Outstanding Special Visual Effects
Steve Kullback, Joe Bauer, Adam Chazen, Michelle Blok, Sam Conway, Ted Rae, David Ramos, Wayne Stables, Derek Spears (for "Beyond the Wall")
The season was simulcast around the world by HBO and its broadcast partners in 186 countries. In some countries, it aired the day after its first release.[70]
Marketing
On July 23, 2016, a teaser production trailer was released by HBO at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con. The trailer mostly consisted of voice overs, and shots of crew members creating sets and props.[113] The first footage from the season was revealed in a new promotional video released by HBO highlighting its new and returning original shows for the coming year on November 28, 2016, showcasing Jon Snow, Sansa Stark and Arya Stark.[114][115]
On March 1, 2017, HBO and Game of Thrones teamed up with Major League Baseball (MLB) for a cross-promotional partnership. At least 19 individual teams participated in this promotion.[116] On March 8, 2017, HBO released the first promotional poster for the season ahead of the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, which teases the battle of "ice vs. fire". Showrunners Benioff and Weiss also spoke at the event, along with fellow cast members Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams.[117]
On March 9, 2017, HBO hosted a live stream on the Game of Thrones Facebook page that revealed the premiere date for the seventh season as being July 16, 2017. It was accompanied by a teaser trailer.[2] On March 30, 2017, the first official promo for the show was released, highlighting the thrones of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Cersei Lannister.[118] On April 20, 2017, HBO released 15 official photos shot during the season.[119] On May 22, 2017, HBO released several new photos from the new season.[120] On May 23, 2017, HBO released the official posters featuring the Night King.[121] The first official trailer for season 7 was released on May 24, 2017.[27] The trailer set a world record for being the most viewed show trailer ever, being viewed 61 million times across digital platforms, in the first 24 hours.[122] The second official trailer was released on June 21, 2017.[26] The season premiere was screened at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on July 12, 2017.[123]
Home media
The season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on December 12, 2017.[124][125]
Illegal distribution
The season premiere was pirated 90 million times in the first three days after it aired.[126] On August 4, 2017, it was reported that, two days before its original broadcast, the fourth episode of the season was leaked online from Star India, one of HBO's international network partners.[127] The leaked copy has the "for internal viewing only" watermark. On July 31, 2017, due to a security breach, HBO was the victim of 1.5 terabytes of stolen data.[128] However, "this was not related to this episode leak", according to The Verge.[129] On August 16, 2017, four days before its intended release, it was reported that HBO Spain and HBO Nordic accidentally allowed the sixth episode of the series on-demand viewing for one hour before being removed.[130]
Data from piracy monitoring firm MUSO indicates that season seven was pirated more than one billion times mostly by unauthorized streaming, with torrent and direct downloads accounting for about 15 percent of this piracy. On average, each episode is estimated to have been pirated 140 million times,[131] making Game of Thrones the most-pirated television series in 2017.[132]
^Goldberg, Lesley (July 18, 2016). "'Game of Thrones Season 7". Hollywood Reporter. Los Angeles. Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. Retrieved December 19, 2016.