If you think you have seen the biggest battle on "Game of Thrones", you should think again. While previous seasons of the show have pitted the Lannisters, Boltons, Martells and Starks against one another, the upcoming sixth season will see a war between the living and the dead.
"The dead are coming," so Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham) warns in the latest trailer for the new installment. Speaking to IGN, some stars of the hit series tease how the conflict will be depicted on the show.
"This is a big thing," says Sophie Turner. "It's always been battles between the houses and from across the Narrow Sea. This is one of those battles that is kind of unstoppable. It's more ominous than anything. It's looming, and you really get a sense that the end is nigh."
But Tommen Baratheon, the King of Westeros, isn't even aware of the looming threat. "Tommen don't even know what's going on," says Dean-Charles Chapman who plays the character with a laugh. "He only knows that he's got to feed Ser Pounce. It's worrying. The living is causing chaos as it is, and now the dead are doing it? You can't win."
Comparing the White Walkers threat to climate change in real life, Cunningham says, "The Night's King is coming. You ain't gonna kill him with a bow and arrow. We need to do something, rapidly, but they've all got their heads up their asses with their own little squabbles."
Of whom Davos delivers the bad news to in the trailer, Cunningham says, "Who I'm saying that to is a fabulous young actress who you haven't met yet, who's about to come in, who's Lyanna Mormont. He's explaining the situation to her because certain other individuals are making a mess of their parlay. He's very good at lateral thinking and explaining the situation, as we know."
Michael McElhatton and Iwan Rheon also dish on how their characters Roose and Ramsay Bolton will react to the approaching White Walkers. "Without a doubt they know," says McElhatton. Rheon adds, "It must be [a concern], but it's not the immediate threat because it seems further away to them than the other people -- practically everyone in Westeros -- who wants to get rid of them. They've got a lot more battles to fight before the White Walkers come."
Maisie Williams also realizes that this threat is bigger than anyone's issue, including that of her character Arya who is now blind. "To me, it means that everyone's little personal issues are absolutely meaningless, and Arya's own little selfish storyline means nothing in the overall story of Game of Thrones, and it's true, we have to be turning our weapons north. But you think anyone's going to before it's too late?" she rhetorically asks.
Arya's brother Bran, who spent the last season training off screen, may have a vision of the battle against the White Walker. Isaac Hempstead-Wright shares, "For Bran, I think it's a real wake up call. He's north, he's up where the dead are, and he could potentially be the key to making the dead victorious or defeating them. There's not much time."
But "Bran has really got to get his act together, and he's still got many teenage, hubristic tendencies," Hempstead-Wright adds. "He's still making some silly decisions with his powers. He's got to learn quickly, and he's got to shoulder a tremendous amount of responsibility with these powers which are going to be crucial, I feel like. For Bran, 'the dead are coming' is a real 'you need to step up to the plate."
