Game of Thrones has been pretty excited about marketing Season 4 for the last several weeks. Fortunately, since most fans are obsessives who gladly take any little developments they can get, the last week has been the best thus far. First, HBO released a brand new, behind-the-scenes featurette this week. Then, earlier today, the network announced it will air a Game of Thrones Ice and Fire: A Foreshadowing special.
You may be asking what Game of Thrones Ice and Fire might entail. It’s basically a 15-minute presentation that will update fans on the status of the show at the start of Season 4, as well as give fans a look at where Season 4 will be headed in the coming months. The official quote from HBO promises behind-the-scenes footage, a few new clips from Season 4, interviews, and finally, answers to a few questions that were sent in to the network. HBO has plans to run the special episode on February 9 at 8:45 p.m. ET as a lead-in to the network’s excellent new limited series True Detective. It’s almost certainly a shameless marketing ploy, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t be worth fifteen minutes of our time. After all, the best commercials, advertisements and teasers are always the ones that are actually worth watching. That’s win-win.
Speaking of devoting short bouts of time to Game of Thrones, you should give the behind-the-scenes video a shot. It’s under two minutes, and it features cast interviews talking about shooting the show, and how they spent 180 days shooting the brand new season. The “On the Set” featurette offers plenty of interviews with the cast members who are practically falling all over themselves to praise the show, but my favorite bits are watching all the familiar faces on the set. Maisie Williams, in particular, is super endearing briefly in the segment when she is practicing sword fighting.
Despite the fact that Game of Thrones is based on a series of books written by George R.R. Martin, and despite the fact that spoilers about the series run rampant on the Internet thanks to the books, the drama is pretty great about keeping the ultimate direction of the series under wraps. All we have to go on so far is the official Season 4 trailer, which gives us a look at a few brand new characters and locations. It’s definitely not as exciting as a new episode or a surprise clip from the upcoming season, but it’s just enough to wet our collective appetites while we wait.
Game of Thrones will hit HBO’s schedule on Sunday, April 6 at 9 p.m. ET. So be sure to get some Ommegang beer if you’re over 21 and tune in for the big kick-off.
