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Game of Thrones fans never lack for dragon appreciation, but there are diminishing returns to their escalation in size, and difficulty to portray onscreen. Leave it to Season 7 to make them even bigger, now estimating Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal to be the size of commercial jets.

What Game of Thrones Season 7 apparently lost in a UFC fighter it gained in a New York Mets pitcher, but don’t worry about Season 7 forgoing the traditional cameo from the music world. Ed Sheeran will put in a likely-covert appearance with the penultimate season, to Maisie Williams’ delight.

It’s taken this long for Game of Thrones to confirm a Season 7 premiere, and lips might finally now be loosening. Straight out of SXSW, Thrones bosses David Benioff and Dan Weiss confirm an even shorter episode order for the eighth and final season.

Considering the scale by which Game of Thrones increases each year (remember when they had to skip a battle in Season 1?), something had to give by the time we reached Season 7. That turned out to lower production to seven episodes at a later timetable, but star Kit Harington promises the money was well-spent on a “much bigger” scale of production.

We’re way out in the woods on Game of Thrones this year, lacking a summer premiere or any sense of how Season 7 will start wrapping up George R.R. Martin’s incomplete saga. Still, were there any doubt Fire would meet Ice this year, allow the first poster to make that point literally.

Look, there’s no two ways about the fact that James Franco playing mustachioed twins for The Wire creator David Simon’s ‘70s New York porn drama is funny. There is no ceiling on “Peak Franco,” and these first official photos from The Deuce certainly aren’t about to find one.

Game of Thrones isn’t necessarily known for its seasonal cliffhangers (Season 5 was more “did that really happen?” than “what happens next?”), but might the penultimate year leave us on a mammoth twist? That’s the suggestion from series star Maisie Williams, claiming “We’ve come to the climax and it’s rolling down to the end.”

Game of Thrones generally doesn’t hide the fact each season features a celebrity cameo or two, but those expecting to see UFC fighter Conor McGregor putting up his dukes in Westeros are apparently in for a bit of a dodge. McGregor apparently denies taking any role, adding “I’ve never even heard about it!”

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.

For as long as Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and Dan Weiss have discussed the final two seasons, the suggestion has been seven episodes for Season 7, and six episodes for Season 8. That final year doesn’t yet have an official renewal, which may yet lead to an increased episode order for the final Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones will return later in the year than we’re used to in 2017, but HBO isn’t about to let you forget about the series after six years. Before December finally brings the winter of 2017 upon us, HBO will marathon all six seasons of Game of Thrones in one dragon-sized catchup.

If Game of Thrones Season 6 made one notable course-correction, it might have been the sideline of Dorne stories after their meandering focus in Season 5. Still, Ellaria Sand and the Sand Snakes will be backing Daenerys in Season 7, and they may yet end up in a surprising role.