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After years of speculation about what could be and what Sony may be up to, the company is finally starting to ramp up the long launch cycle for their next-generation PlayStation console. In an exclusive article published this morning via Wired, Sony games guru and system lead system architect Mark Cerny laid out a few tantalizing tidbits about the still unnamed console, offering some basic information on the underlying system architecture while promising that it’s “no mere upgrade.”

The focal point of Wired’s article is, as many AnandTech readers would expect, on the chip at the heart of the system. Cerny and Sony (and AMD) are now confirming that yes, AMD is once again putting the console’s central processor together. The cutting-edge chip will be built on an unnamed 7nm process, and will incorporate all of AMD’s latest Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU technologies. And while neither Cerny nor AMD are going quite so far as to call it an APU – AMD’s favored name for a chip with CPU and GPU cores integrated – it’s clear that this is very much a single chip, and seemingly an APU in everything but name.

Samsung is gearing up to launch its long-teased foldable flagship and after months of hype, we're finally getting a chance to actually touch the Galaxy Fold. If you're interested in dropping the cool two grand that Samsung is asking for the Fol...

Researchers at Tel Aviv University managed to successfully print the first ever 3D heart that uses cells and biological materials from a patient. The medical breakthrough, which was published today in Advanced Science, managed to produce an entire he...

Twenty months of waiting. So many cryptic photos. The trailer we watched endlessly. The actors who gave such exciting yet vague teases. Finally, the biggest show in the world is back — and EW’s deep-dive recaps along with it. In the Game of Thrones season 8 opener, Arya reacts to things. Sansa is totally unimpressed. Daenerys looks like she’s itching to torch Winterfell. And Jon gets bad news/much worse news in a stunning premiere full of epic grandeur and major confrontations.

Let’s dive straight in: The season starts with two surprises. First, the credits. You expected a tweak or two in the animated pop-up map for season 8. But the changes just kept coming. The Wall is broken. Winter is “freezing’ the titles across the map. We go inside the crypts of Winterfell! How many new Easter Eggs are in this? It’s a major overhaul and quite cool. When the premiere episode screened in New York two weeks ago, fans weren’t the only ones shocked — top people who work on the show didn’t even know about the title sequence makeover.

The second surprise is otherwise how traditional the season opens. There’s no pre-credits “cold open” scene set someplace unexpected or a surprise flashback to mark the final six episodes. Instead, we jump right into the arrival of Daenerys at Winterfell. We see a little boy jockeying for a view between the legs of grown-ups, just like Arya did in the pilot when King Robert’s procession arrived.

Arya sees the boy and smiles (perhaps she’s having the same memory we are?). She’s eager to get a view of the man she thinks is her brother, Jon Snow. She peers darkly at the arrival of The Hound. She’s pleased by Gendry. She’s delighted at the flying dragons. I already want to watch a whole hour of just Arya reacting to things.

We get an epic shot revealing Jon and Dany, swaggering on their horses, a badass-sexy-lethal power couple. Ice and fire, side by side. The grubby commoners glare at Dany. Don’t worry, she won’t force you to bathe and/or commit incest. “I warned you, Northerners don’t trust outsiders,” Jon says.

Courtyard: Jon embraces Sansa and immediately asks where’s Arya. “Lurking somewhere,” Sansa drolly replies, her eyes going to Dany who waits for attention nearby. Then we get the meeting we’ve been eagerly awaiting.

Dany (formal, yet making-an-effort warm-ish): “Thank you for inviting us into your home. The North is as beautiful as your brother claimed, as are you.”

Sansa (after a pause, looking Dany up and down, with a hint of snark): “Winterfell is yours, your grace.”

That’s some icy Northern frost right there. What are they all thinking?

Dany: Your father helped murder my father, the rightful king, then sent me into exile. After years of heroic struggle, I’m back to reclaim my throne. When I saw the Night King and his army, I could have returned to Essos to wait out the winter, or headed south to King’s Landing to capture the Iron Throne. Instead, I marched up here — where it’s freezing, by the way — to try and save your ungrateful butts. And this is the welcome I get? 

Sansa: Your crazy father burned my grandfather and uncle alive. We thought we got rid of your family, and now you’re back. You used your petite blonde hotness to woo my dumb brother into giving up his King in the North title and gods know what else. Now I’m supposed to pretend like you’re my beloved queen and help your massive army when I can barely feed my own people. Also, your coat is totally bougie. And shouldn’t you really update that three-headed dragon pin?

Jon: Please like each other. I love you both. Can’t you get along and just go braid each other’s hair or something? The Night King is coming! Oh for f—k’s sake…

Bran: 110010101001011000101010….

Speaking of the Bran-Bot 9000, he interrupts their greeting to give the courtyard a breaking news seer alert: “The Night King has Dany’s dragon. The Wall has fallen. The dead march south.”

Dany looks at Bran like: Who the hell is this guy? And can he tell me what’s going on back in Meereen? Has it fallen into chaos since I left? It’s not like I care, but I am curious.

The Great Hall: We learn Sansa has called all the Northern Bannerman to Winterfell. There’s what seems like a cute moment when young Lord Umber is told to go back to his castle, Last Hearth, to bring his men. But there are very few throwaway scenes in this tightly plotted final season, and his character returns later for a key piece of the action.

Lyanna Mormont gives an adorably disapproving speech, blasting Jon Snow for giving up his King in the North title to bend the knee to Dany. “I’ll always be grateful for your faith,” Jon says (Lyanna is like, Sure…). “I had a choice. Keep my crown or protect the North. I choose the North.”

Jon is always risking his popularity to make selfless tough choices for the greater good that just so happen to get him into bed with inappropriate women.

Then Tyrion steps up to speak because, okay, a Lannister serving Daenerys is the best person to sway the Northerners. “I know our people haven’t been friends in the past,” he says in a rather extreme understatement, then promises Cersei’s army will arrive soon. Nobody in this show or watching this show actually believes him. (One of the few complaints I’ve had the last couple seasons is that Tyrion, who — as Sansa points out, was so clever in the early seasons — has been forced to make one unwise decision after another in order to advance the storyline. Sure, Cersei’s pregnant, but his faith in her seems rather naive for somebody who knows her so well).

Pragmatic Sansa complains about having to feed Dany’s army and her dragons. You can just feel the Mother of Dragon’s temperature rise at this. How dare Sansa treat her children like a burden, after all she’s gone through to acquire them? “What do dragon’s eat, anyway?” Sansa asks, totally setting Dany up to fire back: “Whatever they want.” Dany doesn’t need dragons to throw down a burn. Jon is literally stuck between them, practically tugging at his collar.

Godswood: Jon Snow goes out to pray that his sister and girlfriend start getting along as Arya stealthily sneaks up behind him. Jon is rightly impressed she managed to keep Needle (“Have you ever used it?” he asks, which drew a big laugh from the premiere screening crowd). They have a moment together that isn’t particularly as warm as might be expected, with Jon having to assure her regarding Sansa, “I’m her family, too” and Arya warning “don’t forget that.”

King’s Landing: Cersei gets some “terrible” news from her creepy mad scientist Qyburn: The Army of the Dead have broken through The Wall. “Good,” she says, because she’s simply that evil — literally everybody in Westeros can die a horrible death as long as her enemies are likewise defeated. This is a rather neat way of re-introducing her character with a single word.

Captain Guyliner Euron Greyjoy has made good on his promise to return with the Golden Company (a mercenary army for hire) plus horses for Cersei’s war against Dany. No elephants, however, much to Cersei’s disappointment (war elephants could be used to crash through an infantry line and panic horses — they would have been useful versus the Dothraki).

The loathsome Euron wants to bed Cersei, for a couple of reasons. One is strategic — Euron wants the Iron Throne and becoming Cersei’s lover is a step in that direction, particularly if he gets her pregnant (obviously he doesn’t know her womb’s currently occupied with a pending fourth bundle of joy via Jaime). The second, as he states, is the guy wants to have sex with a queen. You get the impression that for Euron, any queen will do.

Cersei resists, trying to keep Euron firmly in her “true friend to the crown”-zone. But Euron throws down a combination of arrogant charm, pleas, and vague threats. Cersei cannot afford to lose Euron’s support. He’s the last useful ally she’s got. She reluctantly agrees. (Actress Lena Headey, by and by, has some thoughts about this scene, and there’s a link to that interview at the end of the recap).

Later, Euron seems rather proud of himself and is one of those dudes who insist on knowing exactly how he ranks vs. each of her previous lovers (all two of them). Cersei doesn’t seem entirely displeased (“you’re not boring, I’ll give you that”) yet doesn’t exactly want Euron to stay with her either. Notice Ser Pounce is nowhere to be seen.

Brothel: Bronn mingles with prostitutes who are chatting away about Dany’s fearsome dragons, a memory that isn’t helping his performance. There’s one exchange about a wounded Lannister soldier in here that, again, sounds like a throwaway, but you be the judge whether it really is:

“That boy Eddie.” “The ginger?” “That’s him.” “Came back with his face burnt off.” “He’s got no eyelids now.” “How does he sleep with no eyelids?”

I haven’t been able to get a GoT writer to admit this, but I’m convinced the ginger “Eddie” is a sly reference to Ed Shereen’s singing Lannister soldier, who made a much-mocked cameo in season 7, and was last seen alive by Arya before the devastating “Spoils of War” dragon attack. (Sure his character could have made it from the Riverlands down to the Loot Train attack west of King’s Landing that quickly — just ask Gendry).

Qyburn enters and makes Bronn a lucrative offer from Cersei: If Jaime and/or Tyrion survives, she wants him to murder them with a crossbow. Not just any crossbow, but the same Tyrion used to kill their father Tywin on the loo. So while Jaime is going to Winterfell to try to save Cersei and their child, Cersei is plotting to kill him if he manages to succeed. “That f—king family,” rightly groans Bronn.

On one hand, you’d think Cersei could find at least one killer who isn’t Tyrion and Jaime’s only friend, but, then again, Bronn may be the only person who could get close to both.

Behind the scenes fun fact: This Bronn scene was actually shot for the season 7 finale and moved to the final season.

The Silence: Speaking of crossbows, Euron’s men are effectively killed by Theon Greyjoy’s Kraken Team Six commando squad. He makes good on his promise to rescue his sister Yara, who gives him a semi-affectionate headbutt for cowardly yet wisely abandoning her last season.

They depart for the Iron Islands where they could wait out winter in the soggy grey misery of their not-so-beloved rocky joyless island homeland. No wonder Theon wants to return to the Starks. The North is more fun even when gloomily facing certain death, plus it’s a shot at the one thing he’s wanted for so long: Redemption.

“What is dead may never die, but kill the bastards anyway,” Yara says, putting a zombie-invasion spin on the Iron Islands expression.

Winterfell: Back at the castle, the background is filled with busy workers preparing for what’s to come, a constant reminder of the pending battle.

Advisors Tyrion, Varys, and Ser Davos are on the ramparts. Davos thinks Jon and Dany should marry and unite the Starks and Targaryens. After all, Jon and Dany are perfect for each other and there’s no reason at all that this wouldn’t be a great idea. The trio also contemplates their usefulness in the face of the young lovers’ passions and get all existential.

“ keep us at a distance, so we don’t remind them of an unpleasant truth,” Varys intones. “Nothing lasts.” Varys is the only character who can out-brood Jon Snow.

Meanwhile, Dany is concerned about Sansa’s obvious disrespect. “Your sister doesn’t like me,” she tells Jon. “She doesn’t know you,” Jon assures, as if they’re on a Bachelor hometown date. But I’m pretty sure even if Sansa did know Dany she would still not like her — hell, Sansa knows Jon Snow pretty well, and doesn’t like him half the time. “I am her queen,” Dany bristles. “If she can’t respect me…” To quote Bran: We don’t have time for this, Dany.

Jon and Dany go out to check on her dragons after hearing they’re not eating enough. They don’t like the North either. This news ends up having nothing to do with anything that actually happens next because it’s just an excuse to give us what we want: Jon riding Rhaegal, the dragon named after his father.

Dany tells her boyfriend to mount up, and he’s understandably anxious. “What if he doesn’t want me to?” he asks. I love that Jon wants to get clear dragon consent.

“Then I’ve enjoyed your company, Jon Snow,” Dany cooly replies in an utterly perfect Queen Daenerys line.

Jon gets on and what happens next is a wonderful sequence as Jon gets his bearings amid a wild ride (my favorite bit is the dizzying plunge into the canyon).

“You’ve completely ruined horses for me,” Jon says afterward as they stop for a break. They notice a dark cave nearby. “We could stay 1,000 years,” Dany notes wistfully. “No one would find us.” Her statement is rather reminiscent of another conversation Jon had, years ago, while inside a different cave, with another girl… The duo begin making out and Jon hilariously is distracted by a Drogon gawking at them. (Once again Dragon is probably thinking: Girl, you know he’s your nephew, right? Not that we judge).

I just wish Dany would have taken Sansa out for a dragon ride as well, because I bet the Lady of Winterfell would still be totally unimpressed (“Can’t this dragon go any higher? Do they always smell like this? Can’t it breathe more fire?”).

Later, inside the castle, Sansa is perturbed that House Glover is going to sit out the war and gives Jon grief for abandoning his King in the North title. “I’m telling you it doesn’t matter who holds what title,” Jon insists. “Without her we don’t stand a chance … She’ll be a good queen. She’s not her father.”

Sansa shoots back: “Did you bend the knee to save the North? Or because you love her?”

They’re interrupted before Jon can reply, but I bet he’s thinking: Would saying ‘Both’ be wrong?

Elsewhere, Dany’s diplomatic rounds continue by seeking out the lovely Samwell Tarley in order to thank him for curing Ser Jorah’s greyscale. Privately thinks Dany: This Winterfell meeting, at least, should go swimmingly!

Sam awkwardly notes he could use a pardon for borrowing a few books from the Citadel. He doesn’t mention that one of those books proves she’s not the rightful heir to the Iron Throne and that she’s sleeping with her nephew. He leaves that bit out, but you know it’s racing around in his mind like a squirrel.

Then Sam casually drops his family name, surprising Dany, who then has to admit that she burned his father to death for not bending the knee after the Loot Train battle. She can’t even tell poor Sam she’s sorry, because being queen means standing by your decisions.

Sam takes this pretty well — why, he never liked his jerk father much anyway. But at least he’s still got his cool brother Dickon, right?… Right?

At this point Dany just wants a trap door to pop open under her so she can get the hell out of this room: Yeah, you see, about that… your brother…I kind of burned him too?

Hey Sam: Is there anybody else you care about that you want to mention to Dany right now? Your sister perhaps? Go for three out of three?

This is now hugely awkward for everybody and Sam can barely contain himself and asks to be excused to put them all out of their collective misery. I think this might be my favorite scene in the premiere as it’s almost high comedy played very dramatically and it gives John Bradley (Sam) a chance to really shine. Also, notice how it segued right from Jon reassuring Sansa that Dany is not like her father (who, again, was known for burning people alive as punishment) right into a scene where Dany has to face her own prisoner burning.

Whew. So after that, Sam really deserves to not have another painfully difficult conversation for the rest of this episode. But no.

Last Hearth: Remember that Lord Umber moppet who popped up in the Great Hall at the beginning? Here Tormun — having survived The Wall collapse — is with Dolorous Edd and Beric Dondarrion at Last Hearth. This is a location just south of Castle Black (and far north of Winterfell).

Beric lights up his sword, because that’s what Beric does. I bet Beric does this when just hanging out in pubs. The trio are wary as everything is barren and spooky. They discover little Lord Umber chopped into one of those spirals the White Walkers love to leave behind.

(“These are patterns that have mystical significance for the Children of the Forest,” Game of Thrones showrunner David Benioff has explained. “We’re not sure exactly what they signify, but spiral patterns are important in a lot of different cultures in our world, and it makes sense that they would be in this world as well.”)

Suddenly the dead little lord screams (the premiere audience jumped) and the trio of heroes set him ablaze. Just a little reminder of the threat to come (also, it’s yet another callback to the pilot; the opening scene where the Night’s Watch trio find the White Walker’s dismemberment of the Wildlings in the snow).

Winterfell: Sam goes to have a talk with Jon in — where else? — the Stark family crypt, where his secret mother Lyanna is entombed nearby and his secret father is decidedly not.

Jon is thrilled to see his good buddy, just as Dany was happy to greet Sam earlier. Nobody is making anything easy on Sam. He gives Jon the big news: “You’re the true heir to the Iron Throne.”

And how does Jon react? Jon — er, Aegon —  is … pissed.  Jon doesn’t want the Iron Throne. He never wanted it. And that means his father — or Ned Stark, rather, “the most honorable man I ever met … you’re saying he lied to me all my life?”

Jon has gone from feeling shame in his identity in the first season, to gradually accepting who he is and eventually taking some measure of pride in it. Now that’s all been ripped from him, including a father figure who means so much.    

And hold up … um, just one thing here. If he’s Rhaegar’s son … and Rhaegar was the brother of Daenerys … then that makes Dany his …

Oh s—t.

Before Jon has time to dry heave, he adds, “It’s treason.” And Sam shoots back: “It’s the truth. You gave up your crown to save your people. Would she do the same?”

And with that line, the whole central conflict at Winterfell in this episode — tension created by Jon giving up his title to join Dany — pivots around to starkly contrast the leadership of Jon and Dany in a brand new light. Because we don’t think Dany would give up her crown, do we? That’s some next-level writing.

So is Jon going to tell Dany? If he does, how’s she going to take it?

Even scarier: How would Sansa take it?

Scariest: How would Lyanna Mormont take it?

Courtyard: A hooded figure comes through the castle gates and dismounts.

Here’s Jaime Lannister, looking pleased to have arrived undetected and spots —

A young man in a wheelchair.

Why’s he staring at me? He looks familiar. WAIT.

Again: Oh s—t.

The episode that opened with a scene calling back to the pilot, closes with a scene that heralds back to the very last scene of the pilot, when Jaime shoved Bran out the window. And though we’re all thinking about how is Bran going to treat Jaime, perhaps a better question is how is Daenerys going to treat Jaime — she’s not particularly proud of her father, but he was still her father, and Jaime murdered him.

Overall this hour set the table for the rest of the season while also having a few major moments. Like two others this season, the episode directed by the great David Nutter, who shot it in an epic and compelling way yet managed to rarely draw attention to itself. So many dramatic hooks put in place for the rest of the season. More thoughts about the episode in the podcast coming Monday.

We have some interviews for you:

Kit Harington reveals exactly what Jon Snow was thinking when he found out his parentage: “It’s the most upsetting thing in the world…” (live now). Also an explainer: Why Jon has a better claim than Daenerys.

Premiere writer Dave Hill breaks down all the big moments (live now).

Watch the promo for season 8 episode 2 and the new opening credits online.

Lena Headey has some thoughts on Cersei sleeping with Euron (coming Monday morning).

And Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reveals what Jaime is thinking when he sees Bran (coming Monday morning).

Monday afternoon we’ll have a new episode of EW’s Game of Thrones Weekly podcast where Darren Franich and I will discuss each episode plus reveal behind-the-scenes tidbits from being on set. Listen on iTunes or on Spotify.

Also: We’re doing a Game of Thrones season 8 gift giveaway! Each week during the season we’re giving away three bundle packs of multiple goodies from the HBO Store. This week: Bundles of four Daenerys items. Just answer a trivia question that will be in the recap. This week’s question is an easy one: What ranger did Jon have to kill beyond the wall? To enter: Head over to Twitter and tweet @EW your answer along with the hashtag #EWGOTGIVEAWAY and the hashtag #sweepstakes (Full details).  

Note: While the first episode was screened in advance, the remaining episodes will not be. So this recap will shift into “live recapping” mode starting next week, where I’ll post some initial thoughts after the episode and then continually update throughout the night.

Related content:

Game of Thrones season 8 showrunners interview: ‘This is where the story ends’ Read EW’s complete coverage of Game of Thrones’ final season A guide to the two biggest prophecies on Game of Thrones

Jon Snow knows everything.

In the season 8 premiere, the Game of Thrones fan-favorite was finally told his true parentage. The news is a devastating truth that impacts Jon’s sense of identity, his relationship with his late father, his present romance with Daenerys and, almost certainly, his future. Jon’s friend Samwell Tarley broke the news in the crypts of Winterfell that his parents are Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, making Jon “Aegon Targaryen” Snow the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Oh, and this also means Jon’s lover is his aunt.

It’s admittedly a lot to take in. Kit Harington tells EW that this revelation is “the most upsetting thing in the world” to his character. “If Jon could go back in time and say: ‘Whatever you’re about to say, don’t tell me,’ he would,” Harington says. “He’d happily be in ignorance.”

In most respects, Jon’s reaction is pretty much what you’d expect — except, perhaps, a bit angrier.

“He’s not hard to predict, Jon, he doesn’t do many unexpected things,” Harington says. “You mark the particularly tricky scenes that you’re going have to concentrate on and this was one. He finds out such a massive piece of information. Not only does he find out who his mother is but also that he’s related to the person he’s in love with. It’s hard for any actor to play. It’s not a two-hour movie but eight seasons of playing a character who’s finding out.”

Harington notes Jon is pretty enraged by this news and struggling to contain himself. “The key to it is the audience already knows,” he says. “So it’s not a shock to them. With Jon, it’s about what he says, ‘You’re telling me my father lied to me? My father, the most honorable man I’ve known my entire life, you’re saying that?’ For that moment, Samwell is nothing to him. Jon would disown this friend and beat him up if he was trying to lie to him about this. He’s quite threatening: You’re telling me this, you better be f—king right, and if you’re trying to play me — that was the way to play that scene I think. I hope it was.”

As for his Iron Throne claim (why Jon has a better claim than Daenerys, explained), that’s something Jon is firmly not interested in. “That’s the thing I love about Jon, his purity,” Harington says. “He doesn’t f—king want it. He doesn’t want that f—king information. He doesn’t want to know. He has no ambition for the throne. He’s never wanted that. The end of the world might be coming soon but at least he’s in love with somebody and knows who he is, and then comes this sledgehammer.”

John Bradley, who plays Samwell, gave some insights into filming the pivotal scene as well. “Jon feels Sam is muddying the name of one to the most noble people he’s ever known and that his entire life is built on a lie,” Bradley says. “You know The Beatles White Album? Just toward the end is ‘Revolution 9,’ which is a very sinister soundscape. The inclusion of that on the album makes you doubt what you’ve heard before it, makes the rest sound darker and more dire. You thought you had an angle on the album but that track means nothing you’ve heard before can be trusted. With Jon, he can review his entire life backwards and see everything completely different and in sinister terms even if was done for the right reasons. Everything he’s done seems to have been compromised.”

“He didn’t take it well,” Bradley added, “But coming from anybody other than Sam, he would have taken it worse.”

More: Game of Thrones season 8 premiere deep-dive recap: When Sansa met Daenerys…

Related content:

Game of Thrones season 8 showrunners interview: ‘This is where the story ends’ Read EW’s complete coverage of Game of Thrones’ final season A guide to the two biggest prophecies on Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones writer Dave Hill penned the dramatic season 8 opener which gathered a large cast of main characters at Winterfell and included Jon Snow learning the truth about his parentage. Below, Hill gives some behind-the-scenes insight on major moments in the final season’s first episode.

The opening sequence: “We toyed with the idea of a cold open* but the sequence that most appealed to us was a traditional Game of Thrones opening. A lot of it is mirroring the pilot. Instead of the king’s arrival, we have the queen’s arrival. We now have the budget and the crew to do it properly with a lot of crowds. We start off with a little orphan boy, to see what to a commoner, to the people on the ground where it’s the most exciting thing they’re ever going to see in their life — a Targaryen queen who also has dragons. Everyone can’t help but look even though what they see makes them afraid. They have a new monarch with monsters to fight other monsters.”

Sansa meeting Dany: “Sansa sees her as the foreign interloper. She trusts her family and no one else. You can see from Sansa’s view that Jon went to meet with this southern queen who burned her grandfather and uncle alive and suddenly Jon bent the knee to her. She’s also very pretty, and how much does that factor in? Sansa starts off this season very suspicious and not at all friendly with Dany.”

Tyrion and Sansa’s reunion: “You have to address the elephant in the room of her abandoning him. What did she know and when did she know it? There’s that awkwardness and yet also Tyron realizes how far Sansa has come, she’s no longer that scared little girl, that she’s very much a player.”

Arya and Jon’s reunion: “They’re the two Starks that had the clearest connection in the pilot. He gave her Needle. He knew she was back last season but couldn’t do anything about it. Those scenes are always interesting and fun to write but also tense because you want to do right by these characters, but you can’t have them do what they would naturally do — ‘tell me what happened to you’ because it would be boring for everybody. You have to emotionally convey that information without having to detail it. The first two episodes, in particular, are tough because they’re so contained and have so many characters. It’s hard to script when you sometimes have 6 or 7 characters all in the same room and to give each their due while having it progress organically and not be 10 pages and a lot of recapping information just because there are some things some characters don’t know.”

Jon finding out his parentage: “One of the things Jon always clung to is that at least his father is Ned Stark — this incredibly honorable beautiful man. Ned was his idol growing up. Now ‘my father is not my father, my father lied to me, and I’m actually the thing I want to be least in this world — an heir to the Iron Throne and a rival to the woman I love.’” (Read our Kit Harington postmortem interview where he reveals exactly what Jon is thinking during this scene).   

Jaime Lannister arrives at Winterfell and sees Bran Stark: “You’re watching the premiere and the question is: How are we going to end it? It’s an emotional punch that works really well. I knew it was a scene that was absolutely going to nail.”

*A “cold open” is a scene that takes place before the title credits, a device that GoT has employed on a couple of occasions — such as the season 5 premiere opening flashback to teenage Cersei learning a devastating prophecy from Maggy the Frog.

MORE on the premiere: Game of Thrones season 8 premiere deep-dive recap. Plus read our interview with Kit Harington where the actor reveals exactly what Jon was thinking when he learned his parentage. Also, watch the trailer for episode 2 and the new opening credits.

Related content:

Game of Thrones season 8 showrunners interview: ‘This is where the story ends’ Read EW’s complete coverage of Game of Thrones’ final season A guide to the two biggest prophecies on Game of Thrones

War’s over. He’s a peacetime Mandalorian.

So far, the story of this new Disney+ series has stumped Star Wars historians.

Now we’ve learned what life is like in a lawless part of the galaxy after the fall of the Empire as Star Wars Celebration in Chicago revealed the first details of The Mandalorian.

The first episode debuts when the Disney+ streaming service launches on Nov. 12.

“The Mandalorian is a mysterious, lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy,” said Game of Thrones and Narcos star Pedro Pascal, who plays the lead character.

“Some might say he has questionable moral character, in line with some of our best Westerns, and some good samurai And he’s a badass.”

He doesn’t seem to have an identity, similar to Clint Eastwood’s “Man With No Name” in so many of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns.

“He’s got a lot of Clint Eastwood in him,” Pascal said.

Here are all the updates from the live presentation with executive producer Jon Favreau (Iron Man, the upcoming The Lion King) and the actor playing the masked man.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, executive producer Jon Favreau, and director Dave Filoni (of Rebels and The Clone Wars fame) kicked things off.

Kennedy began by describing Favreau first pitching the idea for the show. “It was instantaneous. We were so excited there was an opportunity to bring this to the screen,” Kennedy said. “I have a feeling that everybody in this room knows that this guy is a rock star” she added, pointing to Filoni, “What could be more exciting than Dave Filoni directing live action?”

She stepped back, and let Filoni and Favreau steer the conversation.

“Dave and I met each other up at the ranch … I was mixing Iron Man,” Favreau said. (That, of course, would be Skywalker Ranch.)

“I was working on The Clone Wars, Season 1,” Filoni said.

They swapped screenings, and were the first to watch each other’s projects. After that, Filoni recruited Favreau to voice the Mandalorian fighter Pre Vizla.

Favreau said he was struck by “the idea of that world after Return of the Jedi, and what would happen, and the type of characters that would survive, and what it was like before the New Republic took over. You have only the strong surviving, you have chaos taking over in the galaxy.”

“Yes, good chaos,” Filoni said.

Favreau says “scum and villainy” is a rich environment for a new Star Wars story.

Pascal joined the stage alongside castmates Gina Carano (Deadpool) and Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed from the Rocky films.)

“That’s what it’s like!” Pascal called out as new images of him holding a blaster and crouching around a corner hit the screen.

“He’s a gunfighter, and a bounty hunter,” Favreau said, goading him.

Pascal said his childhood was shaped by the Star Wars movies and would have gladly played anyone, “a bug …? A robot?” He was stunned to learn Favreau wanted him for the lead.

Boba Fett flew the iconic Slave 1, and Favreau says this new character pilots a gunship called The Razor Crest, which carries a fearsome load of artillery.

Cara Dune is the name of the character Carano plays. “When I got this job, I instantly was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I get to be a part of a whole other family,” she said.

Carano said she portrays an “ex-Rebel shock trooper,” who is “having some trouble reintegrating myself into society.”

Some thought she may have misspoken and meant “Imperial shock trooper,” but Filoni and Favreau tell EW that no, the Rebels had such soldiers, too — basically drop infantry, like paratroopers, that were among the toughest and most resilient.

When the war ends, veterans like Dune found herself adrift, looking for a new place to belong, and haunted by what she had witnessed and done, even in the name of a good cause.

Weathers said his character, known as Greef Karga, is the one who hires the unnamed Mandalorian for his new and perilous mission.

“He is a guy who is running this group of bounty hunters, he’s kind of the head of this guild of bounty hunters,” Weathers said. “There seems to be a lot of nefarious people… He’s looking for someone to go after a product that he wants to bring to a client that’s worth a lot and that’s very valuable, and guess who he finds? He finds a bounty hunter named ‘Mandalorian.’ And The Mando is a guy that he figures can get the job done so he hires this guy, sends him out there and the Mando does what needs to be done.”

Then they screened some footage:

There’s beeping, a pair of boots on a frozen walkway. A tracker is leading The Mandalorian across a snowy wasteland. He enters a small shelter, a bar — silhouetted against the whiteout behind him, like a gunfighter walking through a pair of swinging doors. Some desperate-looking aliens regard him with worry.

Favreau says it takes place five years after Return of the Jedi. We see behind-the-scenes footage of starship, alien crowds, and Pascal’s character, “hunting down quarries.”

There’s an image of The Mandalorian on a Dewback alien, similar to his pose in The Star Wars Holiday Special, welding his forked blaster.

Favreau promises new planets, aliens, and starships as we see imagery of that, along with copious explosions.

“It will feel gritty, it will feel real,” Filoni says.

The main character looks similar to Boba Fett, but Lucasfilm has stated The Mandalorian is not the same person.

This story  takes place after the events of Return of the Jedi and tracks the experiences of a man from the same warrior tribe as notorious bounty hunter, who was last seen plunging into the hungry jaws of the Sarlacc pit on Tatooine.

Pascal will be joined in the cast by Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul; Omid Abtahi of American Gods; Emily Swallow of Supernatural; Nick Nolte in an unspecified role.

Even the stoic German filmmaker Werner Herzog will play a part.

The filmmakers revealed that they recruited 501st Stormtrooper Legion, a group of fans who create their own armored costumes, to participate as performers for battle scenes. Favreau and Filoni shared one photo with a group of the cosplayers on set.

The first episode is directed by Filoni, the creative force behind the animated The Clone Wars and Rebels. Other directors stepping behind the camera for episodes are Deborah Chow (Jessica Jones), Rick Famuyiwa (The Wood, Dope), actor-turned-director Bryce Dallas Howard (who made the short film Solemates), and Thor: Ragnarok‘s Taika Waititi.

In addition to executive producing The Mandalorian, Favreau is also a writer, and the series showrunner is Karen Gilchrist, who executive produced The Jungle Book with him.

Another thing we know already is that Favreau is unleashing some heavy-duty, deep-dive nostalgia.

Throughout filming, he has tantalized followers on Instagram with images of characters who may be obscure to casual fans but are iconic to the hardcore ones.

“If you’ve been a fan for 40 years, there’s a lot in here for you,” Favreau told the crowd.

Among those he has teased are:

• IG-88 —  the imposing killer droid first glimpsed among the rogue’s gallery of bounty hunters in The Empire Strikes Back.

It turns out the droid in The Mandalorian is not IG-88, but a similar robot. The one in the show is known as IG-11.

Favreau has previously posted an image from a recording session that suggests Waititi is the voice of IG-11.

View this post on Instagram

Merry Christmas!

A post shared by Jon Favreau (@jonfavreau) on Dec 25, 2018 at 8:17am PST

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• R5-D4 — the red and white fail-droid from 1977’s original Star Wars, who fritzes out moments after Luke Skywalker and Uncle Owen buy it and C-3PO from the scavenger Jawas. (That allows them to choose R2-D2 instead, keeping the pair together for their mission.)

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A post shared by Jon Favreau (@jonfavreau) on Jan 28, 2019 at 6:13pm PST

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• Willrow Hood — this character is famous because he’s so indistinct. He is played by a background extra running through the hall behind Lando Calrissian during the evacuation of Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back, and although the actor is unknown and the character was nameless, he inspired endless jokes and speculation because the “futuristic” device he was carrying was actually an ice cream maker. In his hype for The Mandalorian, Favreau posted this:

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A post shared by Jon Favreau (@jonfavreau) on Oct 12, 2018 at 4:17pm PDT

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What a scoop!

Finally, The Mandalorian has a callback to a truly arcane bit of Star Wars …

•  The Star Wars Holiday Special — This 1978 broadcast was actually Boba Fett’s first appearance in the galaxy, turning up in an animated short about a year and a half before The Empire Strikes Back.

Above is the weapon he carried in that short, and below is an image Favreau sent out from the set.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jon Favreau (@jonfavreau) on Oct 12, 2018 at 7:17pm PDT

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Even though The Mandalorian is not Boba Fett, it seems that old bounty hunter’s shadow looms over it.

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Shazam! may have just hit theaters last week but plans for a sequel are already well underway with screenwriter Henry Gayden officially locked in to write the follow up, and director David F. Sandberg reportedly in talks to return as well. This isn't exactly surprising -- the way things were left in Shazam make it clear that Billy and his friends are anything but done with this whole superhero gig. And really, who could blame them?

But that leaves us wondering just what might happen in a second Shazam movie. Thankfully, the current comics have no shortage of clues.

Explore the Rock of Eternity's Magical Doors

We caught a tiny glimpse of what lay beyond the Rock of Eternity's main throne room as the kids all frantically tried to find an escape route -- and it was pretty weird: A full on M.C. Escher-style series of randomized doors, floating along different walls and stairwells, all just waiting to be opened.

Continue reading…

The end of the Skywalker saga doesn't mean the end of the Star Wars franchise by any stretch. That's the takeaway from a new interview with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. Kennedy told The Hollywood Reporter that she's working with directors David Benioff, D.B. Weiss and Rian Johnson to plot out an entirely new saga that will unfold over the next decade.

“This

is the culmination of the Skywalker Saga; it’s by no means the culmination of Star Wars,” said Kennedy. “I’m sitting down now with Dan Weiss and David Benioff... and Rian Johnson. We’re all sitting down to talk about, where do we go next? We’ve all had conversations about what the possibilities might be, but now we’re locking it down.”

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After months of speculation over a possible Tomb Raider sequel, we seem to have gotten the answer.

According to Deadline, MGM and Warner Bros., the studios behind the franchise, have hired Amy Jump to pen the script for a sequel to last year's Tomb Raider.

Jump previously wrote the script for the Tom Hiddleston-starring High-Rise and co-wrote Free Fire, starring Armie Hammer and Brie Larson. So far, no plot details have been revealed. The 2018 version was written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet, who co-wrote Captain Marvel, and Alastair Siddons.

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While filming Avengers: Endgame must be hard work, that doesn't mean there isn't any time for fun, as indicated by this amazing image of Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans playing the original Game Boy on set.

Tweeted out by the Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo decided to use his Flashback Friday to give fans a look at the "long days on the #AvengersEndgame set."

Johansson and Evans are both seen playing Tetris on the original Game Boy, link cables and all, and full of smiles.

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Netflix saved LUCIFER from cancellation last season and fans have eagerly awaited news as to when the show would return. Today Netflix announced (complete with a sexy new video) that LUCIFER is set to debut on the streaming service on May 8 (or, more specifically, in 666 hours). There’s no telling right now how the […]

Microsoft has released the first test versions of its new-look, Chromium-powered Edge browser on Windows 10. The Canary preview is updated every day and is more likely to have bugs, while the Developer version will have weekly updates. A more-stable...

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Someone posted in the /r/Apple subreddit an interesting story how his Apple Watch saved his life. It appears that the hear rate notification warned him right before things went "nuts". I was laying in bed, enjoying some TV and homemade brisket, when my Apple Watch told me that my heart rate was weird af, and then, told me my heart rate was stupid fast (thank you heart rate alerts) Called ER, when they arrived, they found me in serious trouble. Body went into shock, got rushed to the hospital in a stretcher, and got taken into trauma. I felt totally fine before everything happened,...

There was a time when Shazam (aka Captain Marvel) was the most popular superhero in the world. And maybe that time will come again, as a live-action Shazam movie starring Zachary Levi as the World's Mightiest Mortal is now here.

But who is this magical powerhouse, and how do Shazam and his powers fit into the larger DC Universe? Read on to learn everything you need to know about Shazam.

Shazam Explained: The Basics

Shazam is proof that the superhero business doesn't need to be reserved for adults. Young Billy Batson is an orphan who caught the eye of a powerful but aging wizard who granted him amazing magical abilities and tasked him with defending the Rock of Eternity (an enchanted place at the nexus of space and time). Whenever Billy utters the word "Shazam!", he transforms into a powerful hero with abilities to rival those of Superman himself.

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From the depths of the ocean to the expanses of a futuristic world, Jason Momoa is soaring to new heights in the first look at Apple’s upcoming fantasy saga series, See.

In footage shown as part of a sizzle reel of new Apple TV+ shows, Momoa, 39, is seen clad in furs in his role as Baba Voss, a character described as a warrior, leader, and guardian in an epic-scale sci-fi drama series penned by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) and directed by Francis Lawrence (Red Sparrow, The Hunger Games). Alfre Woodard, 66, plays the character of Paris, a priestess and advisor to Baba Voss.

See explores a world in which all its inhabitants are blind. “Try to think about the world this way: heard, touched, smelled, sensed. Imagine every human experience available to you — love, joy, discovery, despair, and home — imagine it was all experienced this way … without seeing,” Momoa teased.

Woodard gave more details about See‘s setting, saying it takes place centuries after a virus wiped out most of Earth’s inhabitants and left the only survivors blind. As new generations are born blind, they construct a new world on Earth that is “designed and built to be experienced without sight.”

“In this world, we have our evil queens, brave heroes, and thrilling adventure, but beyond the adventure, See will ask questions you may have already started asking yourselves…how much of my experience of the world is visual? Without sight, will it change who I am?” Woodard said.

See the trailer here:

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Tyrion may be the finest wordsmith in Westeros, but he isn’t the only one. Ahead of the final season of Game of Thrones (premiering April 14 on HBO), we scoured the Seven Kingdoms to find the 15 best quotes of the series.

“Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”
—Tyrion’s sage advice to Jon about being a bastard

“Any man who must say, ‘I am the king,’ is no true king. I’ll make sure you understand that when I’ve won your war for you.”
—Patriarch Tywin putting his grandson Joffrey in his place after he throws a tantrum when Tyrion speaks to him disrespectfully

“The things I do for love.”
—Jaime to Cersei, while pushing Bran out of a tower when he sees the two siblings, um, getting intimate

“There is only one thing we say to death: Not today.”
—Swordsman extraordinaire Syrio Forel to Arya, while teaching her how to fight

“If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.”
—A sadistic Ramsay to the subject of his torture, Theon Greyjoy

“You’re going to die tomorrow, Lord Bolton. Sleep well.”
—Sansa’s drop-the-mic promise to her horribly abusive husband, Ramsay, ahead of the Battle of the Bastards

“That’s what I do: I drink and I know things.”
—Tyrion on how he knows dragons won’t fare well in captivity (his reason’s good enough for us)

“Yes. All men must die, but we are not men.”
—A feminist-as-hell Daenerys offering an upside to Missandei on the impending war

“The man who passes the sentence should swing the sword.”
—The honorable Ned Stark explaining to Bran why he had to kill a Night’s Watch deserter

“Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.”
—A devilish Littlefinger to Varys on power and his intention to seize it

“Tell Cersei. I want her to know it was me.”
—Shade queen Olenna Tyrell asking Jaime, upon her death, to inform Cersei that she was the mastermind behind Joffrey’s murder

“I don’t plan on knitting by the fire while men fight for me. I might be small, Lord Glover, and I might be a girl, but I am every bit as much a Northerner as you… and I don’t need your permission to defend the North.”
—Lyanna Mormont shutting down Lord Glover when he opposes Jon’s plan to train everyone from 10 to 60 to fight

“You know nothing, Jon Snow.”
—Ygritte’s catchphrase of sorts for her sometime enemy/sometime lover

“Winter is coming.”
—Anyone who’s anyone

“When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.”
—Cersei telling Ned he made a big mistake by not taking the Iron Throne when he had the shot

Get your copy of Entertainment Weekly’s biggest Game of Thrones issue ever: 78 pages of exclusive stories and photos on the past, present, and future of the HBO hit. Buy your choice of 16 different covers, and don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interviews and photos, only in EW.

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“You’re traveling through another dimension…”

For Twilight Zone fans, that phrase is all you need to hear. The words instantly evoke that tense, jangling theme and Rod Serling’s flat, cryptic narration over a backdrop of twinkling stars. The sci-fi anthology classic is not only one of the most loved, groundbreaking, and acclaimed TV shows of all time, it’s arguably one of the most distinctive.

The show’s singularity is perhaps why every attempt to officially reboot The Twilight Zone for 55 years has been considered a failure. It’s also why the team behind a new CBS All Access version, premiering April 1, confesses to being slightly terrified — even producer-actor Jordan Peele, who has sociological horror hits Get Out and Us under his belt, and is perhaps the ideal creative talent to bring Twilight Zone into the modern age.

“I felt like it’s the greatest show of all time,” Peele says. “We were tentative to step in. There are many ways to fail at this.”

The easiest way to botch a Twilight Zone reboot, Peele notes, is to not pay proper respect to writer and host Serling’s formula. The original series wasn’t just about telling short sci-fi and horror tales with final-act twists, not only about haunted dolls and invading aliens and interdimensional doorways. The episodes were frequently morality tales, and Serling pushed the envelope to make allegorical points about hot-button issues. Serling tackled racism, McCarthyism, conformity, free speech, the Holocaust and more.

“He would tell stories that explored character and a character’s tragic flaws,” Peele says. “And he would craft a custom-made nightmare for those people. He would place reveals strategically throughout an episode. And he would use the show to Trojan-horse commentary and social messaging through entertainment.”

That last bit is something Peele has already masterfully accomplished at the box office with his films, and fans can expect the same from this iteration of Twilight Zone. One of the new episodes, “Replay,” focuses on a mother (Sanaa Lathan) driving her son to his first day of college and a bullying, racist cop who provokes a tragic incident. She discovers a way to reverse time to restart the encounter, but the corrupt cop always seems to get the upper hand no matter what she does.

“The world we live in 2019 is clamoring socially, politically, morally for a new Twilight Zone,” says executive producer Simon Kinberg, who first met with Peele two years ago about collaborating on the reboot. “Our politics are so upside down, and because the divisions are getting wider, it’s time for a show that can be entertaining but also provide moral and social parables. And Jordan is someone who is uniquely well-suited to telling stories in the genre space that also explore social and political justice issues.”

Another installment, about a kid (Jacob Tremblay) who gets elected president, is a commentary on President Trump. “There’s no more dominant personality in the world we live in right now than our president,” Kinberg says. “So there’s no question that there is an episode — and I would say many episodes, but especially one episode — that explores in a very Twilight Zone-y way the world we’re living in as defined by our president.”

Not all the episodes impart some broad societal message. Others in the first season involve a comedian (Kumail Nanjiani, Silicon Valley) who discovers a power to make people laugh (for a heavy price) and a variation on the classic air-travel horror story “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” starring Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation). “I was terrified when they first asked me,” Nanjiani says. “I loved the show so much, but it’s an iconic thing to take on. I saw Jordan, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m the right person, it’s so dark, I’ve never done anything like this.’ Jordan was like, ‘You’re perfect. You have to do it.’ He gave me the confidence to go ahead.”

Scott had reason for trepidation as well, as previous versions of “Nightmare” starred screen legends William Shatner and John Lithgow (the latter tackled the role with a breakout bonkers performance in 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie). “In comparison with those two, I’d lose every time, so I just tried to get it far out of my mind,” says Scott, who credits going a “bit stir-crazy” from being trapped on the set for 12 days with helping to portray his character’s anxiety. “It felt like a real plane, it looked like a real plane, you may as well just be on a two-week flight without stopping,” he says.

Nearly all the actors on the show (which has also enlisted names like Zazie Beetz, Taissa Farmiga, John Cho, Steven Yeun, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Seth Rogen) signed on to their respective roles before seeing a script. In fact, the toughest actor to convince might have been Peele, who, in addition to producing, steps into Serling’s unique on-screen narrator role. Peele brings more of an ironic wink to the audience and some clever techniques for his narration segments. (In “Nightmare,” he appears on the in-flight TV screens.)

“The other producers believed in that idea; I was kind of reluctant,” Peele says of his hosting job. “I didn’t want this to look like, ‘Hey, the presumptuous Key and Peele guy thinks he’s f—ing Rod Serling.’ But you only live once—let’s try to host The Twilight Zone.”

Other adaptive changes include a much larger budget than any previous Twilight Zone series, R-rated profanity (“we want characters to speak the way modern characters would speak,” Kinberg notes), and variable running times thanks to its home on a streaming service (episodes range from 30 to 60 minutes).

Not all the formatting decisions involved weighing the new version of The Twilight Zone against its iconic past, however. Because there is one modern show that has already successfully reinvented the sci-fi episodic anthology format, and it looms rather large in the pop culture landscape.

“Black Mirror is an absolute masterpiece, and we wouldn’t have moved forward with our show if we didn’t identify what is unique to Black Mirror and what is unique to Twilight Zone,” Peele says of Netflix’s Emmy winner. “One of the easy rules that we made for ourselves is that we don’t have to explore technology—Twilight Zone covers everything else the imagination can think of.”

Nanjiani points out another difference as well: “At its core, Black Mirror is cynical about humanity—that’s not a dig, I love the show. To me, Twilight Zone, no matter how dark the episode, is ultimately optimistic about humanity.”

And nowadays, that kind of optimism alone is a surprise twist.

Here’s the new trailer:

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Brec Bassinger is suited up and ready for action.

DC Universe unveiled the first look at Bassinger as Stargirl‘s titular hero at WonderCon on Friday.

In the new image, the School of Rock actress strikes a heroic pose in a costume designed by Laura Jean Shannon (Black Lightning and Doom Patrol) as she clutches Courtney’s iconic Cosmic Staff. Behind her stands what appears to be a robotic leg, which undoubtedly belongs to her sidekick Stripes, a 15-foot super robot operated by her new stepfather Pat (Luke Wilson). Furthermore, the mere presence of light in the photo suggests that the show will have a lighter tone than DC Universe’s inaugural series Titans, which had moody and shadowy first-look character photos that definitely telegraphed that show’s darker tone. 

Check out the full image below:

Executive produced by showrunner Geoff Johns, the show follows Courtney, a struggling high schooler who relocates to Blue Valley, Neb., after her mother marries Pat. Eventually, she discovers that her stepfather used to be Stripesy, the sidekick of Justice Society of America member Starman (Joel McHale). Courtney ends up borrowing Cosmic Staff and using it to fight evil as Stargirl, inspiring a new generation of heroes in the process. The main character was originally created by Johns and was inspired by his sister, who died in a plane explosion in 1996.

Stargirl also stars Henry Thomas as Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite; Lou Ferrigno Jr. (S.W.A.T.) as Golden Age Hourman; Amy Smart (Justified) as Courtney’s mom Barbara; Meg DeLacy (The Fosters) as Cindy Burman, Courtney’s classmate and the daughter of the JSA’s longtime enemy, Dragon King (Nelson Lee); Trae Romano as Courtney’s stepbrother Mike; and Jake Austin Walker (Rectify), Anjelika Washington (Shameless), Neil Jackson (Sleepy Hollow), Yvette Monreal (Faking It), Christopher James Baker (True Detective), and Hunter Sansone as undisclosed DC characters. Arrowverse overlord Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter. and Melissa Carter will also serve as executive producers.

During the WonderCon panel, DC Universe also announced that Swamp Thing will premiere May 31 and gave updates on Titans season 2, Young Justice: Outsiders, and Kaley Cuoco’s forthcoming Harley Quinn animated series.

Stargirl will debut in early 2020.

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UPDATE: EW has confirmed that Emily Bett Rickards will not be returning for Arrow‘s eighth and final season.

Here’s a statement from executive producers Greg Berlanti and Beth Schwartz:

“We’ve had the pleasure of working with Emily since season one and in those past seven years she has brought one of TV’s most beloved characters to life. And although we’re heartbroken to see both Emily and Felicity leave the show, we’re completely supportive of Emily and her future endeavors. She will always have a family at Arrow.”

Two can play at this game… pic.twitter.com/DIBLZsZUX8

— Marc Guggenheim (@mguggenheim) March 31, 2019

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EARLIER: One essential member of Team Arrow apparently won’t be in Arrow‘s final season.

On Saturday, Emily Bett Rickards, who plays tech-genius Felicity Smoak, appeared to announce that she is leaving the CW’s long-running superhero drama after the show’s seventh and current season (a.k.a. before the final season) on Instagram.

“Felicity and I are a very tight two/But after one through seven/we will be saying goodbye to you,” wrote Rickards in the caption of her photo. “I thank you all for the time we’ve shared/The elevators we have climbed/The monsters we have faced and scared/And The burgers we have dined/ I will keep her in my heart for always/And I hope that you can too/ Because she would not be alive if it weren’t for all of you.”

The CW and WBTV didn’t immediately respond EW’s request for confirmation.

View this post on Instagram

The time has come to talk of many memes. Of bows and arrows and superheroes and Olicity and Queens And why TGA is so damn hot And yes, canaries need more scenes… But wait just one minute before we go and do all that For this makes me out of breath To have this not small chat Felicity and I are a very tight two But after one through seven we will be saying goodbye to you I thank you all for the time we’ve shared The elevators we have climbed The monsters we have faced and scared And The burgers we have dined I will keep her in my heart for always And I hope that you can too Because she would not be alive if it weren’t for all of you Love, Felicity and Me

A post shared by emilybett (@emilybett) on Mar 30, 2019 at 11:24am PDT

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Star Stephen Amell, who plays the Green Arrow, tweeted out a season 1 photo of Rickards as Felicity shortly after she made her announcement.

pic.twitter.com/b9cLrQrnFJ

— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) March 30, 2019

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Although Felicity Smoak is technically the name of a character from the comics (typically associated with Firestorm), Arrow put its own unique and defining spin on the character. In season 1, Felicity was introduced as a quirky IT specialist at Queen Consolidated to whom Oliver (Stephen Amell) turned for help because of her astounding computer skills. She eventually joined Team Arrow, and Rickards was bumped up to series regular status for season 2 because of the overwhelmingly positive response to her character. Over the next few years, she and Oliver ended up falling in love and finally tied the knot in season 6. Furthermore, season 7’s future storyline just revealed that they have a child together named Mia (Kat McNamara).

At the moment, it’s unclear what Rickards’ departure means for both Oliver and Felicity’s marriage and Felicity’s fate. A recent future-set episode confirmed that Felicity is indeed alive in the year 2040.

As previously reported, the CW drama will return for a shortened final season in the fall. The decision to end the show was made during season 6 when Amell expressed interest in moving on after season 7.

“Toward the end of season 6, I approached Greg Berlanti, who I will be thanking in a second, and said that I thought both personally and professionally that, at the end of my commitment this coming season, it would be the best for me to move on,” said Amell in a Facebook Live earlier this month, explaining that he made the decision because of his family. However, he also offered hope that season 8 wouldn’t be the last time he suited up. “Something tells me even when I’m done, I won’t be gone. If you’ve watched the Arrowverse, you should understand that,” he said.

Arrow returns Monday, April 15 in its new 9 p.m. timeslot on The CW.

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