A few days ago HBO announced on Twitter that they will reveal the "Game of Thrones" season 8 release date on Sunday, January 13 before the premiere of the third season of True Detective. And so they did.

Not only that, but they also gave us another chilling teaser set entirely in the Crypts of Winterfell. This is exactly what I predicted when they released that Dragonstone teaser about a month ago. There’s a lot to discuss here, so without further ado, let’s dive right in.

'Crypts of Winterfell' teaser breakdown

Unlike the "Dragonstone" teaser that showed us nothing but forces of ice and fire colliding on the Dragonstone painted table, this one focuses entirely on the Starks (with the exception of Bran.) It shows us Jon, Arya, and Sansa walking through the Crypts of Winterfell.

The teaser ends with the official announcement that "Game of Thrones" season 8 will premiere in exactly three months, on April, 14. Take a look.

As you can see, the teaser begins with a shot of Jon Snow walking through the Crypts. As he walks past the statue of his mother Lyanna, we hear her voiceover. “You have to protect him.” It’s the promise that she extracted from Ned Stark when Jon was born. We also see the feather falling from her hand onto the floor. This is the same feather Robert Baratheon placed on Lyanna’s tomb all the way back in the very first episode of the show.

The next part of the trailer gets a lot more sinister, the entire tone of the music switches up, giving the teaser the ominous vibes.

Sansa shows up. She is walking past Catelyn Stark’s statue when we hear the voiceover “all this horror that has come to my family, it’s all because I couldn’t love a motherless child,” which is a quote from Catelyn's conversation with Talisa in season 3 episode 2.

The teaser then briefly shows Arya, before returning to Jon who is now standing in front of Ned Stark’s statue.

It is in that moment that we can hear Ned say: “You are a Stark. You might not have my name, but you have my blood.” It’s a speech Ned gave to Jon before he rode off to the Wall in season 1 episode 2.

'GoT' season 8 official release date announced

The second part of the teaser sees Jon, Sansa, and Arya meeting up in the center of the Crypts of Winterfell.

They start heading down the hallway when all of a sudden they see the statues of themselves. The interesting thing to note here is that Arya and Sansa’s statues are in their likeness today, while Jon is an older version of himself. This seems to imply that Jon will outlive Arya and Sansa.

As they are looking at their statues, the cold air begins to creep into the Crypts, blowing up Jon’s torch.

Jon and Arya then immediately pull out their swords in order to protect Sansa. The teaser ends with ice covering the feather that was on Lyanna Stark’s statue obviously teasing the coming of the Night King and his army.

The screen then cuts to black revealing the actual date for “Game of Thrones” season 8, which is, once again, April 14, 2019.
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