Following the highly-anticipated Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere last night, HBO released a brief trailer for the second episode of this shortened run, Stormborn, debuting Sunday, July 23 at 9 PM ET. Naturally, if you didn't tune in to the Season 7 premiere, there will be huge SPOILERS below, so be sure to read on at your own risk. But if you did watch last night's premiere, there are some very interesting developments crammed into such a tiny trailer.
The preview, which debuted on Game of Thrones YouTube, opens with Yohn Royce (Rupert Nicholas Vansittart) delivering quite the powerful line, "A Targaryen cannot be trusted." While we don't see what happens before or after this brief line, he utters this to the new King In the North, Jon Snow (Kit Harington), which likely means that this line followed some sort of proclamation by Jon Snow that he intends to team up with Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), who was seen taking her fleet to her ancestral homeland of Dragonstone in the premiere. While it's clear that Yohn Royce is no fan of this proposal, there have previously been set photos featuring Jon Snow and Daenerys meeting on the beaches of Dragonstone, hinting that an alliance between these characters is imminent. After all, they both want to get rid of Queen Cersei, so it seems likely that they could come to an arrangement that benefits both sides.
The trailer also shows Cersei telling a group of advisers that the Mad King's daughter, Daenerys, will "destroy the Realm", while, in Dragonstone, Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) thinks they should attack King's Landing now, since they have an army, a fleet and three dragons. Of course, that decision is ultimately up to Daenerys, and it remains unclear as of now when she will make her move. We also learned in the premiere that Cersei is aware of Dany coming to Westeros, with her brother Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) telling her that she will be heading to Dragonstone, which was left abandoned once Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane) and his army went to the North.
The trailer also features brief shots of Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), what looks like a direwolf, Yara Greyjoy about to kiss an unidentified male character, Dany consulting with Lord Varys (Conleth Hill) and perhaps the most intriguing shot of the whole trailer, where Littlefinger (Aiden Gillan) is seen being strangled by an unseen character. In the Season 6 finale, Littlefinger made his intentions with Sansa clear, stating that he wanted to sit on the Iron Throne, with Sansa by her side as his Queen. When he tried to kiss her, she gently pushes him aside. In the Season 7 premiere, he tries to converse with his potential Queen once again, although she is clearly disinterested. Brienne (Gwendoline Christie) then asks Sansa why he's still here, when Sansa admits that his Knights of the Vale saved them, and helped them take back Winterfell from the Bolton clan.
In regards to the potential alliance between Dany and Jon Snow, there was another interesting development revealed in the Season 7 premiere, when we caught up with Samwell Tarly in Oldtown, where he is studying to become a Maester. So far, his training apparently revolves around washing out bedpans while trying not to vomit, but after sneaking into the restricted area, Sam steals some books, where he learns that there is a massive amount of dragon glass, the material that kills White Walkers, underneath Dragonstone, with Sam telling Gilly (Hannah Murray) that he must write to Jon Snow and tell him his news. It's possible that Jon has in fact received his letter, which is why this potential alliance is being forged. While we wait for more on Game of Thrones, take a look at the new trailer below for next week's episode, along with photos from last night's episode, and one new image from next week's episode, Stormborn.
