This is how the final season of Game of Thrones is going to begin

Game of Thrones is still months away - but it's officially time to get excited.

Entertainment Weekly has given fans of the long-running series the first look at the highly anticipated upcoming season - as well as a lengthy behind-the-scenes feature. While they weren't able to give away too much about what fans can expect this season,  they were allowed to spill the beans on how it all begins. The publication report that the opening episode of season 8 will have a number of nods to the pilot episode - including the first scene. The episode will open in Winterfell, with the Starks waiting for a royal visitor. But instead of King Robert Baratheon, it's the woman with a million titles: Daenerys and her army. A "tense intermingling" of characters plays out through the season, leading up to the inevitable confrontation with the Night's King and the Army of the Dead. On the season, co-executive producer Bryan Cogman said:

“It’s about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death. “It’s an incredibly emotional, haunting, bittersweet final season, and I think it honors very much what George set out to do — which is flipping this kind of story on its head.”

We can't wait for this. While there's been no official release date confirmed yet (we'd imagine that information will come out in early 2019), it's looking like the season will premiere mid-next year.