Any new Game of Thrones footage is news, no matter how small it is. And this is small: In a two-minute ad for the upcoming season of HBO shows that’s airing before tonight’s True Detective — but was leaked on YouTube mid-afternoon — there’s a quick but key bit of never-before-seen GoT content.
Indeed, it runs about five seconds. But they’re an action-packed five seconds. We see a bunch of marching soldiers. Then a dragon flies over top them. So far, big whoop, right But then we see Arya Stark. And Arya Stark, as you may know, has never seen a dragon. And it’s just in time for her to get a new and exciting costume change!
That’s it! But people love to analyze and break down anything GoT-related. And it is, of course, a kind of beautiful little moment.
There’s more than Game of Thrones in the ad — almost two minutes worth of more. HBO — the TV empire that, with The Sopranos, kickstarted this whole Second Golden Age of Television — continues to bang out must-watch television.
Sure enough, the ad offers glimpses at the likes of the final season of Veep, season 2 of Big Little Lies, the latest attempt to adapt Alan Moore’s game-changing comic Watchmen, and — perhaps most exciting — the revival of Deadwood, which HBO unceremoniously cancelled after only three seasons.