Game of Thrones Season 8 Set to Include 'The Longest Consecutive Battle Sequence Ever'

It sounds as thought the entirety of one of Game of Thrones' six remaining episodes will be a battle sequence.

While this story doesn't contain direct spoilers, those who want to know nothing about GoT Season 8 should turn away now.

A new set report from Entertainment Weekly, reveals that one episode will feature the battle of Winterfell, pitting human allies against the army of the Night King.

It'll bring together the most major GoT characters in one place since the show's first episode and is apparently 'expected to be the longest consecutive battle sequence ever committed to film'.

The wording there is interesting. EW says the episode will "be" the longest battle sequence, not "include" it, which implies the battle will take up the entirety of its runtime. With some episodes this season expected to run up to 90 minutes long, that could be very considerable.

Some, but definitely not all, of the characters involved are Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), and Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie).

It is also definitely not the series finale, which will be directed by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and whose details are far more under wraps (to the point where only approved crew members with bespoke 'Episode 6' badges were allowed on set).

Requiring 11 weeks of night shoots and up to 750 cast and crew members, the episode sounds like it may also be the most exhausting in GoT history, to the point where director Miguel Sapochnik apparently phoned actors a year in advance to tell them to prepare.

We've heard about this episode before, when assistant director Jonathan Quinlan posted a note thanking cast and crew for 55 nights' work. Now we know why he said that the shoot was for "something that's never been done before".

As for what actually happens in that battle, we're understandably less sure on that. Co-executive producer Bryan Cogman told EW:

“What we have asked the production team and crew to do this year truly has never been done in television or in a movie. This final face-off between the Army of the Dead and the army of the living is completely unprecedented and relentless and a mixture of genres even within the battle. There are sequences built within sequences built within sequences. David and Dan [wrote] an amazing puzzle and Miguel came in and took it apart and put it together again. It’s been exhausting but I think it will blow everybody away.”

There's much, much more in EW's report, with some fairly astonishing stories about the effort that went into this episode and others.

We won't have to wait too long to see what that hard work made – Game of Thrones Season 8 will premiere on April 14.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK Deputy Editor, and he'd better see some Gendry hammer action. Follow him on Twitter.

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