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Game of Thrones Season 7 Release Date Confirmed

After months of waiting, HBO has finally confirmed that Game of Thrones will return for season 7 in the US on 16 July, 2017.

Following the unveiling of the season’s first official poster on Wednesday night, the Game of Thrones Facebook page shared a message on Thursday telling everyone to tune in at 2 p.m. ET to help reveal the premiere date of season 7.

When 2 p.m. rolled around, a live video appeared focusing on a giant block of ice in the middle of an otherwise empty room. By typing “FIRE” and “DRACARYS” in the comments section of the video, viewers were able to command flames to shoot at the block of ice, slowly melting it to uncover the date within.

And in between the blasts of fire, cast and crew appear to give away a few little secrets from the set.

Finally, with over 160,000 fans watching live, the release date, 07.16.17, was revealed at 3:08pm EST.

On March 7, actor Liam Cunningham who plays Ser Davos Seaworth, told The Independent that the new season would premiere in July. Cunningham also made an appearance at the end of the Facebook stream to assure fans that Season 7 will be worth the wait.

There will only be seven episodes this year as the show focuses on making each of them as high quality and big budget as possible. The later release date than usual is down to more filming needing to take place during winter.

Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Peter Dinklage (Tyrion), Lena Headey (Cersei), Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime), Sophie Turner (Sansa) and Maisie Williams (Arya) have all reportedly signed up for a seventh season back in 2014, so expect them all to return. Sophie Turner has hinted, however, that "not all" of the current cast will make it to the last ever episode in season 8, and some favourite could yet die in season 7.

Season 6 ended with Cersei famously silencing the haters, Daenerys taking back Meereen and taking to the seas with Tyrion, and Jon and Sansa in the process of unifying the North under what remains of the Stark family. A Game of Thrones concert experience is currently touring the United States until April 2.