Fans have been quick to point out what it could mean for the ending of the show
We now know that the next season of
Game of Thrones will begin airing on 14 April after HBO
released a new teaser overnight on Monday.
The minute-and-a-half clip of the coming episodes shows Jon Snow, Arya and Sansa Stark in the crypts underneath Winterfell and features a strong hint a Jon Snow's ancestry - following last season's revelation that he was the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.
https://twitter.com/GameOfThrones/status/1084631184804433921
As Jon passes a statue of Ned's sister Lyanna Stark as he is walking through the crypt and a small feather is blown out of her hands, a female voiceover says: "You must protect him," the same words Lyanna spoke when she gave Ned baby John just before she died.
The feather has been a long-running motif in
Game of Thrones. In the first ever episode of the show saw Robert Baratheon lay a feather at Lyanna's grave.
The feather was also seen when Sansa walked through the crypts with Littlefinger before the pair spoke about Lyanna and Rhaegar's relationship.
"Lyanna was already promised to Robert," Littlefinger told Sansa, "the last two riders were Barristan Selmy and Rhaegar Targaryen. When Rhaegar won everyone cheered for their prince...until he rode right past his wife, Elia Martell, and all the smiles died.
"He rode past his wife and lay a crown of winter roses in Lyanna's lap, blue with frost...how many tens of thousands had to die because Rhaegar chose your aunt?"
The trailer shows the third time viewers see the feather. In the final moments of the teaser the screen freezes, something social media users have suggested implies that the White Walkers are going to attempt to kill Jon Snow.
https://twitter.com/JonxDanyy/status/1084633995218960392
https://twitter.com/BhushaanKadam/status/1084720293044801536
https://twitter.com/LSHNorthAF/status/1084632597362294784
https://twitter.com/RaisingSelf/status/1084646351562956800
https://twitter.com/AwesomEmergency/status/1084634939973201920
