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Winter may have arrived in Westeros, but Game of Thrones is finally melting the ice with a summer premiere. At long last, Season 7 has been confirmed for an official July premiere, as revealed during a special, lengthy ice-breaking live event.

Even the deadest of dead Game of Thrones characters are hardly off-limits by Season 7, though it had appeared Season 6 made short work of lingering figures to tighten up its final years. Surprisingly, we may not have seen the last of a Game of Thrones villain who made a brief return in Season 6, despite a pretty large hole in his neck. Allow us to explain.

The tragic passing of Carrie Fisher took an even more heartbreaking turn with the subsequent death of mother Debbie Reynolds, but the heartfelt work of either will at least receive an HBO spotlight in the future. The network will air an encore of Fisher’s adapted stage show Wishful Drinking on Sunday, while a future Fisher-Reynolds special remains on track for 2017.

Now that we’ve finally gotten a first look at Game of Thrones Season 7 footage, it’s worth wondering if the final two years will continue the tradition of famous cameos. One report in particular suggests that UFC favorite Conor McGregor might be getting his hands dirty, but how credible is the rumor?

Game of Thrones may be debuting later in 2017 than usual, but our first look at Season 7 is right on schedule. Check out the newest official footage, as HBO’s 2017 preview reveals Arya becoming a Northern girl once more!

Game of Thrones isn’t the type to lend itself to wide conspiracies in the same manner as Westworld, but that hasn’t stopped more than a few persistent possibilities turning the rumor mill. Season 6 in particular saw one uncomfortable rumor dogging Sansa, one it seems Season 7 is putting to rest well-ahead of schedule.

Game of Thrones has long had its own line of beers for fans to celebrate with, and it seems crazier than a Mad King to be without an official wine. No longer, as a Santa Rosa winery will bring us three different varieties for every generation of Lannister to poison themselves with, some more quickly than others.

Between the epic run of Game of Thrones and the impressive first season of Westworld, odds are good that you’re currently rocking an annual subscription to HBO or HBOGo. Few networks are still in the business of appointment television, but with social media sites like Twitter exploding into a flurry of spoilers after each new episode of both shows, fans are finding that their only real options are to watch on time or to not watch at all. In fact, we can sometimes get so caught up in the flurry of long-form television that we forget that HBO has some pretty darn good movies, too.

Game of Thrones Season 7 has already tightened story circles as much (if not more) than last year, and we often forget how close certain characters have come to interacting. So it is that new set photos reveal another hotly-anticipated pairing, one likely to be a bit tense by the long-ago battle of “Blackwater.”

Even as “Battle of the Bastards” a few surprise returns caught our fancy, Game of Thrones fans would be hard-pressed to argue Season 6 had one unforgettable breakout. Now, the series’ best new additions is confirmed to return for Season 7, bringing us one step closer to crowning the true ruler of the seven kingdoms.

Now that Game of Thrones is formally winding down into shortened seasons, HBO’s interest in a spinoff extension of the franchise will only rise. Series heads David Benioff and Dan Weiss have adamantly distanced themselves from any more Thrones after Season 8, but HBO heads are still courting them to return in some capacity.

There were at least a few Game of Thrones Season 6 returns that served largely to sweep those characters off the board altogether, but surely those that survived would return for Season 7, yes? So it is, with one of the most unexpected Game of Thrones Season 6 appearances, that a previously long-lost character will hang around for the HBO drama’s 2017 return.