In an interview Thursday with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss answered questions about the popular series' final season, but when pressed about whether or not we've seen the last of the White Walkers, the two were pretty tight-lipped about it.
(It goes without saying, if you haven't seen any of the episodes in the latest season, you may want to click out of this post before reading beyond this point!)
"Are we for sure done with the White Walkers?" Kimmel asked Benioff and Weiss.
"Yeah, we're not gonna answer that," Benioff said, while Weiss shook his head in agreement that they couldn't give Kimmel or the fans watching at home a definitive answer. 👀👀👀
This is pretty big news considering that last Sunday's episode, "The Long Night," saw the Night King — aka the leader of the White Walkers — meet his demise at the hands of the one and only Arya Stark, who stabbed him with a knife made of Valyrian steel.
His death then prompted all the other White Walkers to either shatter or collapse, putting an end to the threat once and for all — or so we thought?!
In some ways, the non-answer Benioff gave could be a clue about what lies ahead.
After Sunday's episode, a good number of folks online expressed dissatisfaction about the way the Night King's storyline was handled.
The White Walkers were introduced in the very first episode of the series, "Winter Is Coming," and several characters over the show's eight seasons have said, repeatedly, that the Army of the Dead was the biggest threat on the show.
So seeing the Night King and his minions killed so swiftly within one episode left a lot of folks questioning things.
Still having difficulty understanding how #GOT can setup a big bad for seven seasons -- SEVEN god damned seasons -- then have it finished off in one night. Honestly not sure what the whole point of the White Walker storyline was now -- I thought it was *the* storyline.
Ending the White Walker storyline and having Cersei be the main villain of the show would be like Thanos dying in the middle of Infinity War just for Ultron to pick up the Infinity Gauntlet. D&D FUCKED UP THE OTHERS’ STORY AND IM FURIOUS #GameofThrones
My hot take after watching Sunday's Game of Thrones twice and thinking on it for a while: nearly the entire White Walker / Night King storyline of the show was a letdown and a waste of time. I enjoyed the episode, but if /that/ was what the last seven seasons led to... yikes.
The thing is, Game of Thrones is a very unpredictable show, so who knows what's gonna happen!
If the White Walkers were truly eradicated, one would think Benioff and Weiss might be able to say as much — which probably means there's a good chance we haven't seen the last of this type of evil.
While "The Long Night" was a riveting moment of television, Emilia Clarke, who plays the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen, hinted that there is something even bigger to come.
"Episode 5 is bigger," she teased on Kimmel's show Wednesday, later adding, "Find the biggest TV you can."
And speaking of Clarke, in Season 2, Episode 10, "Valar Morghulis," her character had a vision at the House of the Undying, and we saw her walking through the throne room in King's Landing, which had been demolished and its floor covered with snow.
People have long speculated this may have a connection to the Night King, so the showrunners' reluctance to weigh in on whether or not he's still a threat to the living is very interesting indeed!
In addition, there's that plot point involving Craster, the wildling who lived north of the Wall and had incestuous relationships with his daughters. At the end of Season 4, Episode 4, "Oathkeeper," we saw Craster's last son turned over to the White Walkers, who welcomed the baby into their flock.
The child's purpose hasn't been resolved, which is another indication that we might not be done with the Night King's storyline.
And for what it's worth, the book series the television show is based on is called A Song of Ice and Fire, so the two elements will probably be equally linked in some way that hasn't yet been revealed.
More ice could be on the horizon!