Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Maisie Williams: 'Nothing will prepare you' for season 7 of 'Game of Thrones'

game of thrones season 7 cliffhanger s6e6 2
Macall B. Polay/HBO
Believe it or not, Game of Thrones has not hit peak intensity — at least it doesn’t sound like it. Star Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, shared her reaction to season 7’s scripts on Monday, and she hinted at the epic drama reaching entirely new levels.

Williams didn’t mince words when it came to describing the upcoming season. After tweeting that she had “just finished reading season 7,” she shared her take on it: “s–t gets REAL.” While it is hard to believe that it could get any more “real,” we don’t doubt the ability of co-creators and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to make it happen.

Williams had more to say about the upcoming season as well. She initially suggested that fans “start preparing yourselves now,” but then reconsidered, indicating that it would be impossible to do so.

i'd start preparing yourselves now

— Maisie Williams (@Maisie_Williams) August 22, 2016

scratch that, nothing will prepare you for this

— Maisie Williams (@Maisie_Williams) August 22, 2016

With just seven episodes, season 7 will be shorter than usual. Nonetheless, it sounds like it will pack a powerful punch as it leads into the series’ eighth and final season. There is still a lot of ground to be covered over the course of the two remaining seasons, especially the looming threat of the White Walkers and the ongoing struggle for the Iron Throne. We expect a wild ride for the people of the Seven Kingdoms, not to mention us as viewers.

Game of Thrones has already entered preproduction for season 7, and production will begin prior to the end of August. Benioff and Weiss previously shared that production was pushed back to get weather more befitting of a Westeros winter, which sadly means that season 7 will premiere later than usual.

We’ll be prepared when the series finally returns next summer — or as prepared as we can be.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
The 10 most powerful Game of Thrones characters ever, ranked
Daenerys and Jon meeting together in her room.

House of the Dragon ended its hugely successful first season with an episode that included everything, from plots to steal the Iron Throne to dragon battles and a violent death. In short, it was just another day in Westeros. Yes, House of the Dragon was a resounding success, but it owes much of it to Game of Thrones. The show that single-handedly revived the fantasy genre and redefined what the word "spectacle" meant in television, GoT was a game-changer.

The show conquered fans' and critics' hearts with a successful mix of political intrigue and good, old-fashioned drama; there was nothing like it on television or film. Game of Thrones featured a seemingly endless parade of morally-dubious characters vying to seat on a pointy chair, and we couldn't get enough of them. Indeed, the pursuit of power was at the heart of GoT, with every major player wanting to get their share of the glory. But what is power in Westeros? Varys said it best: it's an illusion, a shadow on the wall. And these characters certainly cast a very large shadow. Whether because of their resources, armies, gold, or charm, these figures were the most powerful in Westeros and the beating heart of the game of thrones.
10. Jon Snow

Read more
Game of Thrones: the best Jon Snow episodes
Jon Snow beyond the wall in Game of Thrones.

Though we're only two episodes into the new series, HBO's House of the Dragon has so far successfully captured the thrill of week-to-week dark fantasy epics, political drama, and overall excitement for the characters and world of Game of Thrones. A second season was already greenlit less than a week after the series premiere but with the recent bombshell of the Kit Harington/Jon Snow-led sequel series in development, it's worth revisiting the impact of the original show as well as its potential future.

Despite a final season that went off the rails, Jon Snow cemented his status as a pop culture fantasy icon and one of the most compelling characters in Thrones' main cast. As such, he's had a great spotlight in a handful of the series' best episodes.
Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things (season 1, episode 4)

Read more
Why Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power can’t be a Game of Thrones rip-off
Morfydd Clark in "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power."

Even before Game of Thrones went off the air, there was rampant and wild speculation about which show might emerge that could replace it. Game of Thrones was, according to some, the end of an era where TV fans would all watch the same show and then spend the following week discussing the latest episode and speculating about what was to come. Recently, House of the Dragon has attempted to prove that Game of Thrones can be an heir to itself, but another show that has also entered the fray hopes to become something of a phenomenon.

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has often been described as Amazon's version of Thrones. The company has invested enormous sums of money into the show, and it's set in a similar fantasy universe as Thrones, with flying creatures and human actors wearing bad white wigs. George R.R. Martin, the mind behind Game of Thrones, was a huge J.R. Tolkien fan, and wrote his own fantasy series essentially in response to Tolkien's totemic works. That's part of the reason why, whatever Rings of Power turns out to be, it has to be more than just a riff on Game of Thrones, even though its source material was created long before anybody sat on the Iron Throne.
Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones are not the same thing

Read more