Game of Thrones season 8’s premiere could feature two familiar faces

Game of Thrones season 8’s premiere apparently has enough room to bring some long-missing characters back as well as setting up everything else.

How much can Game of Thrones pack into one episode? The show has already proved that it can do quite a bit in not a lot of time, relatively speaking, but the premiere might add on another task: re-introducing some relatives of the last living Starks.

Here’s what’s going on. As discovered by members of r/freefolk and confirmed both by Watchers on the Wall and by Culturess, there’s a listing for the season 8 premiere available right on HBO’s site. Now, Watchers leaves the biggest surprises for last, but we’re going straight to it: Lino Facioli and Tobias Menzies are back as Robin Arryn and Edmure Tully, respectively, after skipping season 7.

Granted, r/freefolk and Watchers both warn that it’s possible this’ll happen later in the season rather than in the premiere, but that doesn’t make sense based on the general plot threads we expect to see.

We’ll start with Edmure. One Reddit subscriber pointed out that Jaime Lannister could make a stop at Riverrun. That might not be exactly it, though. Why would Jaime stop somewhere that he left on something of a bad note after taking the castle? Is he legitimately going on an apology tour?

If it is the latter, he’d be one of the few people that would have the authority to free Edmure, in a mirror of Catelyn’s freeing him in seasons past.

What could also happen is that with the Freys still presumably in disarray and the Lannister contingent broken, we could have Edmure back in something like power. With the news that Winterfell is back in Stark hands, Jaime could have to avoid a Tully retinue headed north to confirm what’s happening and offer some assistance.

In fact, Robin Arryn’s appearance actually makes more sense, in its own weird way. With Littlefinger now dead, Robin doesn’t have a Lord Protector of the Vale anymore and instead is just in charge. The Knights of the Vale came to his cousin’s aid once; would it be a surprise if we got to see him ordering that they should come back or otherwise stay there? Not necessarily. Would he pay a visit and thus be present for the start of the collapse of the north? That’s also possible, actually.

It’s going to be a complex first episode, no doubt, but there have been a couple new wrinkles thrown into what we expect to see come April 14.