Game of Thrones breaks HBO's viewership record with the Season 8 trailer

It’s been more than a week since the official trailer of Game of Thrones Season 8 dropped (finally!) and unless you are living under a rock you have seen it already. If you are though, here’s the trailer.

As per EW, at least 81 million people around the world sure weren’t, because that’s the number of people that viewed the trailer in the first 24 hours after it dropped, and broke HBO’s all-time record for the most views on a TV trailer in that time span across all platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and others.

It’s all in the family though, because the previous record was held also by Game of Thrones, the season 7 trailer to be specific, which had been watched by 61 million people worldwide in the first 24 hours after it was released two years ago. That’s a solid 20 million increase in the viewership.

Season 7 closed with the mother of all cliffhangers (the Wall broke down, remember?) in August 2017 and left the entire fandom in a lurch for the next two years. HBO has had to deal with Game of Thrones spoilers and leaks in the past, with script pages and even entire episodes getting leaked. For their last season, they took absolutely no chance.

With an insane amount of security (decoy plots, multiple endings, and whatnot) on the sets, photos and scoops were hard to come by. HBO had an iron grip over what materials reached the audience, with rare glimpses coming by way of few second clips and sanctioned cover stories. The new trailer is the first real look at the season 8 plotline and mercifully crammed with scores of tidbits.

Read our blow-by-blow analysis of the season 8 trailer.

Game of Thrones has come a long way from the meagre 2.52 million viewership of season 1. As more and more people jump on the bandwagon, the swansong of the Game of Thrones saga seems all set to break a lot more records going forward. Game of Thrones Season 8 premiers on HBO on April 14.

If children are gifts from God, our favorite quarantine couple Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas have been bestowed with the most beautiful gift ever, a baby girl. We knew that the couple had been expecting their first child for some time now. While the Game of Thrones star and her singer-songwriter husband never really went public with the news, their recent outings offered us plenty glances at Sophie carrying her baby bump with class and ease. TMZ – which came out with the news first – informs us that the star couple has named their daughter, Willa. Read on to find out more.

We have learned that Sophie gave birth to the baby last Wednesday (July 22) at a hospital in Los Angeles. The reps for the couple have confirmed the news to various media portals. “Sophie Turner and Joe Jonas are delighted to announce the birth of their baby,” the statement read.

One of the sources gave a little more detailing to the experience. “The couple is already obsessed and can’t stop gloating about their new addition,” it tells Entertainment Tonight. “The couple is taking time to enjoy this special moment and have only shared the news and updates with family and friends. With the pandemic, Joe and Sophie have been very cautious about who is around them and their little girl.”

There was news last month that the couple had bought a new home in Los Angeles. It’s a baby-friendly space with a lot of room, especially suited to raise children. Given the coronavirus crisis and lockdowns, Sophie and Joe remained careful and refrained from meeting other people. Apart from going out for walks and extending responsible support to the Black Lives Matter protests, the couple has tried to remain indoors through the quarantine period. Thus, they seem well-prepared now for this serious and incredible journey ahead as parents.

The popular couple tied the knot last year with a surprise wedding first in Las Vegas, and then in a bigger ceremony in France; after being engaged for almost two years. The news about the pregnancy had broken out in February this year. And although the two never confirmed or denied the claims, they were clicked while visiting a children’s store in March.

Sophie Turner aka our Queen of the North has been particularly active during this period of COVID-19; constantly reminding people about the importance of social distancing and self-isolation. In one of the video chats with Conan in April, she had revealed that she was enjoying her quarantine with Joe Jonas; who’s otherwise hard to pin down socially. However, being an introvert, she loved staying at home.

It feels almost surreal to see that the little young girl (Sansa Stark) from the first season of Game of Thrones has become a mother now; along with growing into a strong and independent woman. We are extremely happy and proud.

Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

With a global pandemic looming over our heads for what seems like forever now, all sorts of activities are finding ways to bypass the barriers of social distancing while keeping the COVID-19 infection at bay. Content creators in every field are turning to online aids in order to interact with their audiences. In the past few months, we’ve seen how films have increasingly chosen digital platforms for their releases. It suits their interests well as there are no signs of theatres re-opening anytime soon; plus, their product gets an instant global market to perform in. Game of Thrones star Pilou Asbaek’s (Euron Greyjoy) latest horror/supernatural film, Run Sweetheart Run has found a home at Amazon Studios and Prime Video. Read on to find out more.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year in January. It was also meant to be a part of this year’s SXSW (South by Southwest) festival which got canceled as a result of the COVID-19 impact. Produced by Blumhouse Productions and Automatik, the film had a theatrical release date set on May 8, 2020; via Blumhouse Tilt (a label dedicated to genre films). But, then again, coronavirus problems halted the release. Thus, Amazon Studios acquired the film to release it globally on its streaming platform, Prime Video; as per Deadline.

The movie is the story of a working single mother (Cherie) who decides to face the tremors of the dating scene again. Her apparently charming blind date (Ethan) turns out to be a nightmare whose violent persona endangers her life. She’s on foot in the streets of Los Angeles trying to get back home alive; but the roads offer an ominous threat of the predator. So, our menacing pirate from GoT (Pilou) is again playing a deadly game in this horror-thriller. Written and directed by Shana Feste, the film stars Ella Balinska (Charlie’s Angels), Pilou Asbaek (Game of Thrones), Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad), Clark Gregg (The Avengers), and Aml Ameen (The Maze Runner).

The producers at Blumhouse and partners at Amazon have praised Feste’s work. The producer, Jason Blum said, “Shana is a supremely talented writer and director; and we were fortunate to collaborate with her to bring her vision to fruition. I’m thrilled that movie-loving audiences around the world will get to see the film soon.” Matt Newman of Amazon Studios also backed the content of the film with full force. “Filmmaker Shana Feste takes the audience on a knuckle-bending ride that is sure to keep genre fans on the edge of their seats.”

It might be hard to believe but the director’s source for the film happens to be an incident from her own life. “As crazy as audiences may find the protagonist’s experience, I wrote and directed a film that is based on a very personal story for me; and I’m thrilled that a global audience will have the chance to see it soon on Amazon Prime”; said Shana Feste. It’s safe to say here that we await its arrival eagerly.

We don’t know the exact release date yet; it’s going to be soon is all that we have for now. So, keep an eye out.

Do you have any thoughts about the film? Write to us in the comments section below.

Once a great show is over, the fans are always looking for hints and chances to see the cast back together; either to entertain or interact with them again. It could be a game, a virtual-session, an interview, or if the odds are too good, a new film or TV show. Since it has been more than a year that Game of Thrones wrapped things up, the longing for a reunion might be rising. And that’s what the fans of Thrones got last week.

Five cast members from GoT joined a virtual gaming session of Dungeons & Dragons with D&D Live 2020: Roll w/Advantage held between 18-20 June. The games were meant to raise money for Red Nose Day; in order to help children impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton), Natalia Tena (Osha), Gemma Whelan (Yara Greyjoy), Kristian Nairn (Hodor), and Daniel Portman (Podrick Payne) represented the cast of Thrones in the session held on 20^th June. Read on to find out more.

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy tabletop role-playing-game where the players go on an adventure full of wizardry, monsters, and fantasy. The players create their own characters while giving them specific traits and abilities. The game features interactions between the characters and the setting of the fantasy world; which are overseen and judged by the Dungeon Master (DM). These activities involve verbal impersonation of characters by the players while using a mix of social and cognitive skills. The cast of Thrones played the game on June 20 with Kate Welch (designer of D&D at Wizards of the Coast) serving as the DM. The GoT stars made up quite interesting characters for their adventure; Iwan Rheon was Woody Elftree; Natalia Tena created Puff the Magic; Gemma Whelan became Barbara Bladeboy; Kristian Nairn as Finvarra and Daniel Portman played Untrustworthy Alan.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the campaign unfolded on a video chat; where “a group of heroes meets an unusual creature that sets them on a strange task. It seems simple enough – but in a realm legendary for its danger, all is not what it seems.” Iwan Rheon let us know in the teaser video that his GoT character, Ramsay Bolton would not provide an ideal source for his D&D character. “It’s not all about brawl, man. You gotta think your way through problems. Not like Ramsay Bolton, probably. Not gonna be very useful,” he said.

Kate Welch gave an overview of her games and how the Thrones’ cast fits in. “The games I run tend to be ridiculous and goofy; which are two words I wouldn’t apply to Game of Thrones, necessarily. Super excited to see how these actors, in particular, let loose with the antics you typically find at a D&D table,” she told EW.

However, the GoT get-together is not the only gaming session that the D&D Live hosted. Many other popular stars like Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood), Amy Acker (Angel), Sam Richardson (Veep), David Harbour (Stranger Things) also took part in the D&D games which began on 18^th June. You can catch the full episode with the cast of Thrones here and other episodes as well on the Dungeons &Dragons YouTube channel.

So, do you have any thoughts about this reunion? Tell us in the comments section below.