Big ‘Game of Thrones’ Spoilers Might Be Hidden In This Candid Cast Photo

By Meghan O'Keefe @megsokay
Published March 7, 2018, 11:47 a.m. ET

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The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones won’t be hitting HBO until 2019, but fans are already looking for clues about the fiery finale. The latest bit of over-analyzed evidence? A candid photo of the show’s key stars and showrunners enjoying a round at a Belfast pub called Kelly’s Cellars.

Besides confirming that Daenerys, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Grey Worm will all show up in the frigid north again, the pic offers up a tantalizing mystery: who else is going to be there? You see, eagle-eyed internet sleuths have noticed that someone — actually TWO “someones” — are hiding in the photo. Why would these two people want to hide themselves? Is it because of spoilers? Or is it just they didn’t want to be bothered to be in an untouched photo?

If you zoom in in a separate tab — as I did — you’ll see that Jacob Anderson, Emilia Clarke, David Benioff, Kit Harington, D.B. Weiss, two sets of hands, and Peter Dinklage are seated around the table, clockwise, from the bottom center. Belfast is homebase for a bulk of Game of Thrones‘ production. It’s where they shoot the Winterfell scenes, as well as a lot of the stuff at the Wall and north of it. It’s not too much of a stretch to anticipate that Jon, Dany, Tyrion, and Grey Worm will return to the north this season. After all, Jon’s seat is Winterfell and the Night King is marching for the stronghold. That’s where the action is. So, no big spoilers there.

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But who else could be there?

First, while it’s hard to tell for sure what race and gender the two hidden figures are, they look like two white women. The one in the background certainly is based on the shape of her legs. The one in the foreground, with their dark hair facing the camera, could be a guy. (Maybe Alfie Allen???)

Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams might be the most obvious guesses. Last we saw Sansa and Arya Stark, they were holding Winterfell. LaineyGossip is suggesting that Sophie Turner is not there. This is because she was spotted in Paris for fashion week yesterday. The photo above was presumably taken Sunday. The caveat there is that it’s much easier to hopscotch from Belfast to Paris in a pinch than, say, from New York or Los Angeles. So, it’s possible that Turner was in the pic. Also, her appearance wouldn’t be that big of a spoiler since we expect her there, so why would she hide?

What about Maisie Williams? We know from her Instagram that Maisie was back in Europe, where everyone was pummeled by a snowstorm, last week. However, the photo is of her dog and her dog seems to live at home:

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So maybe Turner and Williams weren’t in Belfast on Monday. Maybe they were enjoying some R&R. And again, since we expect them to be in the North, it wouldn’t be a spoiler that they were there.

Who else could it be? The popular fan theory is that Lena Headey, Cersei herself, is ducking out of the frame. That would definitely be a spoiler. Cersei has not visited the North since the beginning of the series, and at this point in the story, she’s refusing to come to Jon Snow and Daenerys’s aid in the battle against the White Walkers. Headey also recently tweeted about the snowy weather…and dropped a lot of Game of Thrones allusions:

So let’s pretend it is Headey and that they are close to filming the final moments of the series. Who else is hiding there? Who else would be a spoiler? The best guess I have is Carice Van Houten, aka Melisandre. Cersei and Melisandre would be formidable allies in a final battle against the White Walkers…and neither are in Jon and Dany’s good graces at the moment.

Did we do it? Did we crack it? Or could it just be some PAs who don’t want their photo taken? (The latter kind of makes the most sense.)

Call us crazy for doing this, but what else are we supposed to do while we wait for Game of Thrones to return?

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