Dragons and death descend on Winterfell in first full trailer for Game of Thrones' final season

Game of Thrones fans got a very big surprise this morning with the first full trailer for the fantasy series' eighth and final season, which airs on HBO next month. Up until now, the network has only been dropping extremely short clips, which have been "baked" into compilation trailers alongside teases for other original programming.

So far, we saw Sansa (Sophie Turner) ceding Winterfell to Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Arya (Maisie Williams) beholding one of Dany's dragons with abject wonder. The new trailer delivers on all of that and more.

Watch the full trailer now:

So, let's talk about what we see in this new trailer: Arya is a full-on faceless and death-obsessed assassin now; Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) and Beric Dondarrion (Richard Dormer) are both still alive; Cersei (Lena Headey) hasn't lost any of her smugness; Greyworm (Jacob Anderson) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) are now an item; Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) pledges his allegiance to the side of the living; and, of course, the Battle of Winterfell begins with the Night King's horse stepping into the frame.

To say we're excited is an insult to the word excitement. We may have to invent a brand-new word that fully explains just how hype we are for the final season.

By the end of Season 7, things were looking dire and complicated to say the least. The Night King now has a dragon of his own (zombified, of course) and moved his undead army across The Wall and into the land of the living. Meanwhile, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) got frisky with Queen Daenerys, unaware that he is not a bastard, but a full-blooded Targaryen and that she's his aunt. After seeing a White Walker with her own eyes, Cersei still refused to work alongside Daenerys, a move that both underscored her detachment from reality and drove her brother, Jaime, away from King's Landing.

Comprising just six episodes, Season 8 was mainly written by creators/showrunners, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff; the first two are penned by Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill. Weiss and Benioff are directing the series finale, while Miguel Sapochnik and David Nutter helm the other five installments respectively.

Game of Thrones returns to HBO for the final time on Sunday, April 14.

What was your favorite part of the new trailer? Let us know in the comments below!