HBO has confirmed that they won’t be releasing any advance screeners for Game of Thrones‘ upcoming season 7 in a bid to avoid them from leaking online.

Traditionally, journalists and critics have received episodes of the hit show before they air in order to cover them before they first hit the small screen.

But now, the screeners won’t be available after a 2015 leak resulted in the first four episodes of Season 5 being illegally downloaded only a day before the show premiered.


The same decision was taken by HBO last year, but a mistake by a Canadian streaming service resulted in the first episode of season six appearing online only hours ahead of its official launch.

And in November last year, a number of spoilers, which are believed to be particularly credible, were posted on Reddit.

The seventh season of Game of Thrones will debut on Sky Atlantic next month, and will consist of only seven episodes ahead of the show’s finale in 2018.

Despite being shrouded in overwhelming secrecy, a sneak peek of Season 7 was seen last week in a behind-the-scenes special effects video which showed a gargantuan fire-fuelled battle at sea.

Another recent theory speculated about the real name of Jon Snow – and suggested that his father is a character from George RR Martin’s books who is yet to be introduced to the HBO show.

Advertisement