Games of Thrones is coming back after its long hiatus, and spoilers from an unusual source are pointing to the deaths of many popular characters.
The HBO fantasy drama has left fans hanging on whether Jon Snow is dead or alive, but one computer program has calculated that he may not be the one at risk the most.
As the Express reported, the Technical University of Munich developed an algorithm that compiles loads of data around the show and predicts who will be killed next. Though it may sound a bit far-fetched, the report noted that it has a 74 percent success rate in guessing character deaths in both the television series and books.
4 more days. Watch a clip from the Season 6 premiere of #GameofThrones airing Sunday on @HBO . https://t.co/QXjtrBdtjJ
— Game of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) April 20, 2016
Sansa and Theon brave harsh conditions in new Game of Thrones clip https://t.co/XHowQfCAOa pic.twitter.com/5CwALJcwFv
— io9 (@io9) April 20, 2016
The next 10 episodes could be a bloodbath, the algorithm found.
“The super computer has predicted that villainous Ramsey Snow has a 64 percent chance of death, while manic Theon Greyjoy has a 74 percent chance of being killed off,” the report claimed. “However, it’s Tommen Baratheon who looks most likely to bite the dust – with a staggering 97 percent chance of death.
“He’s closely followed by Stannis Baratheon and Daenerys Targeron [sic].”
There have been other Game of Thrones spoilers leaking out in the days leading up to the debut of Season 6. The show’s writer-producer, Bryan Cogman, told Entertainment Weekly that last season was one of the show’s darkest, one that brought a number of central characters to “huge moments of crisis.”
He promised that this season would not be as harrowing for fans, but nonetheless would still be “very dark, very intense.”
Cogman added that the upcoming season would have a lot of callbacks to Season 1.
“There’s also a trend that began in season 5 and continues even more so in this season of worlds colliding, with characters meeting in hopefully very unexpected ways,” he said. “Seasons 2–4 were about the expansion of this world; seasons 5 and 6 are about contracting. Characters who were rivals, and in some cases enemies, are being forced to work together, which makes for a lot of juicy dramatic tension. And then there’s the obvious answer in terms of the size of the show.”
For fans trying to match Game of Thrones up with the action happening in the series, Cogman warned not to look too directly. He said they are still drawing on many story arcs from the books, but said it is never a direct adaptation. He did say fans would see some character versions and interpretations featured in the book series but not yet in the television show.
While there are plenty of potential spoilers for what will happen in Game of Thrones during Season 6, the show’s long-term future is getting a lot of speculation as well. HBO and showrunners David Denioff and Dan Weiss said they are already looking forward to a seventh season followed by an eighth that could include an end-date for the show, Entertainment Weekly reported.
The proposed magic number? About 73 hours, with the final run split between seasons 7 and 8. Thrones would then have six 10-episode seasons and shortened seasons for years seven (with seven episodes) and eight (with six episodes). So this could, in theory, mark the final year Game of Thrones gets a 10-episode season – and there could only be 13 hours left after season 6.
[Image via HBO ]
