{IMAGE_2}The trailer for HBO’s Game of Thrones penultimate Season 7 ends with the stentorian announcement that “The Great War is here,” and it certainly includes plenty of spectacular images from what promises to be a very event-filled seven episode season that debuts on July 16.  The trailer shows off the show’s impressive production values (Season Six had a per-episode cost of $10 million and Seven looks like it will be even higher).  Game of Thrones has continued to draw huge audiences on the order of 23 million viewers, and the show’s immense popularity has generated a flotilla of spin-off series (see “Fifth Game of Thrones Spin-Off in the Works”).

Will this season include a conflict between the living and the undead White Walkers?  The as-yet-unrevealed events in Season 7 include both original content as well as material from the unpublished sixth and seventh volumes of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.