The highly-anticipated seventh season of Game of Thrones will officially return on July 16.
Following a year-long hiatus, the world of Westeros will return for its penultimate season—a shortened seven-episode installment that will continue the stories of Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and the rest of the realm’s remaining players.
HBO made the announcement on Facebook Live Thursday after previously stating that the premiere had been pushed back from spring to summer due to a scenery related filming delay. “Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing,” explained programming president Casey Bloys.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- L.A. Fires Show Reality of 1.5°C of Warming
- Behind the Scenes of The White Lotus Season Three
- How Trump 2.0 Is Already Sowing Confusion
- Bad Bunny On Heartbreak and New Album
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- We’re Lucky to Have Been Alive in the Age of David Lynch
- The Motivational Trick That Makes You Exercise Harder
- Column: All Those Presidential Pardons Give Mercy a Bad Name
Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com