'Game of Thrones' to return July 16

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L-R: Peter Dinklage, Nathalie Emmanuel and Emilia Clarke; image courtesy HBO(NEW YORK) — The wait is over — winter is (almost) here!

Game of Thrones announced Thursday via Facebook live that it will return for season 7 on July 16.  During the announcement, fans were invited to literally help the show melt a virtual block of ice by typing “fire” into the comments field to reveal the date.

There were more than 100,000 fans on the stream right after it began. A highlight reel of audio clips followed the date reveal, with show stars like Isaac Hempstead Wright appearing on the stream and asking fans to keep typing in “fire” to melt the block.  It was a reference to the title of the five books that Game of Thrones is based on: collectively, they’re known as A Song of Ice and Fire.

If you recall, we left off at the end of season six with Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys crossing the sea to conquer the Iron Throne, and Lena Headey’s Cersei pulling off one of the most sinister revenge plots in history, blowing up most of King’s Landing and reclaiming the throne for herself. 

We were also told that winter isn’t coming any longer….it had finally arrived.  For fans, it can’t come soon enough.

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