The season seven finale of Game of Thrones left fans with cliffhangers and multiple unanswered questions. Viserion had just decimated the Wall, Jon Snow and Daenerys consummated their fiery passion, and an unlikely truce had been formed between the Dragon Queen, the King of the North, and the villainous Cersei Lannister. Cersei had agreed to fight alongside their forces in order to defeat the looming threat of the Night King’s army of the undead. After seeing evidence of an actual Wight in person, Euron fled back to the Iron Islands out of fear.

Of course, as Cersei informed her brother and Jaime later on, Euron’s flight was just a ruse. Cersei and Euron had plotted to ally themselves with the famous Golden Company and turn on Daenerys and Jon.

A widely speculated theory had Game of Thrones fans surmising that the leader of the Golden Company would turn out to be none other than Daario Naharis. Daenerys’s former lover allying himself with her enemies would certainly undermine her bid for the Iron Throne that will likely play out in the Final season.

German actor cast as Golden Company Leader.

While certainly a very credible idea, recent reporting from the prominent Game of Thrones fansite, Watchers on the Wall, has seemingly quashed the idea of Daario’s betrayal in the bud.

According to the site, German actor Marc Rissmann has been cast as Harry Strickland who, as book readers know, was the leader of the Golden Company in the novels.

Although Rissmann's casting has not been 100% confirmed, fans immediately began to speculate how important Rissmann’s role as Strickland would be in the final season.

Like many of the other characters on the show, Rissmann has obvious physical differences than the portly Strickland with thinning hair described in the novels.

Rissmann is slated to appear in two episodes according to WOTW.

Fans continue to speculate about final season.

Speculation has run rampant about the upcoming season, and the cast and crew are apparently doing all they can to prevent spoiler leaks.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister, even stated that the cast wouldn't even be given scripts, but rather fed their dialogue through earpieces. (Whether that was a silly joke from the actor or a legitimate statement has not been confirmed.)

Rumors aside, the eighth and final season of the worldwide phenomenon will be only six episodes. With so much left to wrap up before fans bid farewell to the people inhabiting the world of Westeros, it's no wonder they'll take any nugget of information they can while the premiere date remains unannounced.

Game of Thrones airs on HBO and is estimated to return in late 2018, early 2019.
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