June 27, 2016 7:35 PM EDT

Warning: This post contains spoilers from the sixth season of Game of Thrones.

If the entire Game of Thrones series constitutes one big chess match, we’re not far from the checkmate.

In an in-depth conversation with Deadline, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said they’ve had the show’s ending in mind since they first began adapting it from George R.R. Martin’s still-unfinished books. After the season six finale, which aired Sunday night, the series is entering its final stages before the big dénouement.

“We’ve known the end for quite some time and we’re hurtling towards it,” Benioff said. “Those last images from the show that aired last night showed that. Daenerys is finally coming back to Westeros; Jon Snow is king of the North and Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne. And we know the Night King is up there, waiting for all of them. The pieces are on the board now. Some of the pieces have been removed from the board and we are heading toward the end game.”

The pair declined to give too many details about upcoming events on the next season — they wouldn’t say how the Wall’s magic would hold up to the White Walkers, for instance — but they did foretell a deep dive into Cersei’s mindset now that she sits on the Iron Throne. “While Cersei has certainly done a lot of horrible things in her life and she could be a very cruel person, the one thing that was redemptive about her was, she genuinely loved her children,” Weiss said. “Now they’re all gone, and I think that is very interesting for us. Who is she without her children? The answer is something you’ll find out next season.”

Game of Thrones Showrunners: We’re ‘Hurtling Towards’ the End