A new Game of Thrones fan theory suggests that the Night King will not be present at the Battle of Winterfell, as he may have another kingdom on his radar.
The teaser trailer for the third episode of season eight sees the likes of Jon Snow (Kit Harington) and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) preparing their armies for the epic clash between the forces of the living and the dead.
Harington’s character warns that “the Night King is coming,” presumably to lead his terrifying army of White Walkers into battle.
Reddit user u/qp0n, however, suggests that the villain will not take part in the conflict, as he will instead move on to King’s Landing to avoid Daenerys’ dragons and claim the Iron Throne.
“When the army of the undead line up for the battle of Winterfell, the Night King and his zombie dragon will not be there,” the fan writes.
“Instead he will already be near to his next target… King’s Landing.”
The Reddit user argues that it would be “easy” for Daenerys’ dragons Drogon and Rhaegal to destroy the Night King’s “zombie dragon” Viserion, as “Wights all can be killed by fire”.
“It would not be difficult to simply fly up to Viserion and breathe fire on him, and that would be that,” they continue.
“The Night King is not stupid, not enough to kamikaze his most powerful asset. If you have a superweapon that you can’t use against a particular target, then you find a different target.
“Most people have come to assume that the living will lose The Battle of Winterfell and fall back to Moat Cailin… I predict they actually win the battle… only to find out soon after that there is a new army of the dead much bigger and much further south… the population of King’s Landing.”
The fan also notes that Bran Stark has a series of visions in the show's fourth season, all of which have since "come to pass" - except for one which shows "a destroyed throne room & a dragon shadow pass[ing] over King's Landing."
HBO has confirmed that the third episode, which required 11 weeks of gruelling night shoots, will be the longest in Game of Thrones history, with a run time of 82 minutes.
Actress Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark, told Entertainment Weekly that she was left feeling “mentally and physically broken” after filming scenes for the Battle of Winterfell.
Game of Thrones continues on Mondays at 2am and 9pm on Sky Atlantic and is available to stream on NOW TV.
