A star of Game of Thrones has suggested that the show will return in July, so here are things to do while we all wait for season 7.
The off-season is dark and full of terrors, Game of Thrones fans. Even a steady stream of spoilers hasn’t stopped us from missing dragons, direwolves, and all the rest. However, the wait for at least a premiere date may very well be over, if this report from our sister site, Winter is Coming, means anything. They report that Liam Cunningham has suggested to the Irish Times that season 7 will premiere in July. Of course, he was careful to modulate that by saying “I think” at the end, and HBO has confirmed absolutely nothing, but let’s say that we’ll have to wait until July.
Without further ado, let’s just run down five things you can do between now and July in order to prepare for Game of Thrones‘ seventh season.
Re-watch the entire show
There are six complete seasons of Game of Thrones, which means there are 60 episodes total. There are nearly 20 weeks between now and the start of July, which means that if you watch about three episodes a week, you’ll be hitting “The Winds of Winter” right as July begins and thus be absolutely ready for season 7. Of course, you’ll have to pace yourself and resist the urge to just watch several episodes in a row and ruin this obviously very carefully plotted-out schedule we’ve just given to you.
Read the books
Obviously, you’ll need to be a reasonably fast reader to get through everything from A Game of Thrones all the way to A Dance with Dragons. We’re not even going to assume that The Winds of Winter will be out in time for you to read through it prior to this putative July premiere. But, should you dedicate yourself and read a book every few weeks, you could have all of them done and your mind fresh. For bonus points, throw in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which collects George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg stories, then try The World of Ice and Fire as well for some extra Targaryen history in particular. It might even come in handy, considering Jon Snow’s revealed parentage.
Check out all of the spoilers
We did mention spoilers, didn’t we? It just so happens that we know quite a lot about the upcoming season already. Since filming is coming to an end sooner rather than later, we probably won’t have more spoilers to look at between now and then, but that gives us plenty of time to obsess over what all the photos and news could mean.
Watch something else
It can’t be all Game of Thrones, all the time, right? If you insist on keeping things in the realms of fantasy, shows like The Shannara Chronicles might suit you, though there’s not a lot in the way of nudity or graphic murders because it airs on MTV. If you need to stay with HBO, though, and really like Ramin Djawadi’s musical stylings, Westworld may suit you if you missed it last fall. Besides, if you step away from the show, you might find that your theories end up improving or gaining a new perspective on them.
Cook!
Look, it’s entirely possible that you won’t want to see anyone while you sit and watch Game of Thrones‘ seventh season, but for the more social among us, there’s something to be said for making some food, inviting some people over, and then eating that food with them. A quick search for “Game of Thrones recipes” shows that there are plenty of ideas, but if you really want to, you can just pick up the official cookbook, A Feast of Ice and Fire, and practice your lemon cakes ahead of whatever’s going to happen to Sansa in the seventh season.
Next: GoT S7: Shopping for Spoilers
How are you going to get through the rest of this off-season?