‘Game of Thrones’ May Have Hinted at King’s Landing’s Doom in Season 8

All manner of death and destruction are on the table for Game of Thrones’ final season, and Winterfell may not be the only locale getting a new sunroof. Resurfaced commentary from the Season 7 Blu-ray hints that Cersei might have good reason to watch the skies when Season 8 arrives in 2019.

You’re warned of mild to moderate Game of Thrones spoilers from here on out, but some of Season 7’s most memorable and foreboding imagery saw Cersei cruising around her new map room, planning the destruction of her enemies. The room has already sparked plenty of symbolic theorizing, but it seems fans may have been looking in the wrong direction. Commentary for the season’s fourth episode has been making the rounds, as producer Chris Newman, visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer and visual effects producer Steve Kullback noted some foreboding design to the room’s ceiling (or lack thereof):

Steve Kullback: Dan and David asked us to make it an exterior location in an upcoming episode, but I can’t tell you why. But that’ll pay off, too. […]

Chris Newman: The courtyard always was thought of as being an exterior courtyard, even before she had the map painted, hence the sunlight.

Joe Bauer: It used to be at least a story taller, but there was a need to see the sky in this coverage.

Steve Kullback: Forthcoming coverage.

Implied in the exchange is that a Season 8 episode would see Cersei looking overhead, ostensibly at something unusual or threatening. One of Daenerys’ dragons seems the most common guess (that one shot of a dragon shadow over King’s Landing has never paid off), though it’s also worth remembering that Season 7’s finale established that winter had finally come to the capital city. Another visual hanging over the endgame is that of Daenerys’ House of the Undying vision from Season 2, which saw the King’s Landing throne room looking bombed out and covered in snow.

Cersei’s fate remains one of the open questions heading into Game of Thrones Season 8, but is King’s Landing getting a visit from above? Stay tuned for the latest.

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