Cersei Lannister is surrounded. “Enemies to the east. Enemies to the West. Enemies to the South. Enemies to the North,” she says in the opening seconds of the first full trailer for Game of Thrones’ seventh season. Fans of the show will finally get to see the long-awaited showdown between those who claim a right to the Iron Throne. The Great War has arrived.
From the East we see Grey Worm, part of Daenerys’ army. From the West, a giant dark ship led by Euron Greyjoy. In the South, we see a sword being sharpened, possibly in Dorne. And from the North rides Arya, a representative of the Stark family.
The newly crowned queen goes on to say, “Whatever stands in our way, we will defeat it,” and the camera flashes to the army at King’s Landing. “We’re the last Lannisters, the last ones who count,” she says to her brother Jaime. (All of Cersei’s children are dead, two by poisoning and one by suicide.) But then we get a glimpse of Tyrion watching one of Daenerys’ dragons take flight. Surely when he makes it to King’s Landing with his Khaleesi he’ll want to prove to his sister that he does indeed count.
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Dany then steps in, saying, “I was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms and I will.”
Then we get a view at the North, where Jon Snow is king and dealing with a much greater threat than a challenge to his throne: the coming White Walkers (though their presence is largely implied rather than shown). “If we don’t put aside our enmities and bound together we will die,” Ser Davos Seaworth warns in another voiceover. “And then it doesn’t matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne.”
The trailers also gives us a few flashes of what’s to come. Melisandre looks to be in Dragonstone, presumably meeting with Daenerys. It’s unclear how Dany will receive the sorceress who got the last royal she endorsed killed. The Dothraki are fighting someone in Westeros, presumably after disembarking all those boats. An arm reaches creepily through a door, perhaps Jorah with progressed greyscale. And Little Finger isn’t done whispering into Sansa’s ear — which is perhaps what drives Jon Snow to rough him up a bit in a quick shot.
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The season premieres July 16 on HBO. It will be just seven episodes with the final installments of the show airing in 2018.
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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com