What’s in store for the next season of Game of Thrones? Recently, the stars of the hit HBO TV series spoke with Entertainment Weekly about what fans can expect from season seven.

The upcoming season will be the second to last for the popular fantasy drama. The large cast includes Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Lena Headey, Emilia Clarke, Aidan Gillen, Kit Harington, Diana Rigg, Sophie Turner, Maisie Williams, and Iain Glen.

Speaking to EW, star Emilia Clarke revealed that the main characters get more screen time in season seven, which only consists of seven episodes (as opposed to usual 10 for Game of Thrones):

When I first read this season I thought: ‘Damn, I gotta learn some lines! We’re actually filming longer now. I don’t know how that’s happening.”

Co-showrunner Dan Weiss said there’s more screen time for the leads because so many characters have been killed off:

You kill a couple dozen characters, the people who are left by default need to carry more dramatic weight.”

Weiss later teased that more characters and storylines will merge this season:

As the worlds start to converge the characters who haven’t met each other before start to meet each other and there are more main characters together in each other’s storylines than ever before. Every since Tyrion crossed the Narrow Sea and met Dany that’s been the general direction. And having them on set together is a real privilege for us.” 

Game of Thrones‘ seventh season premieres on HBO on July 16th.

What do you think? Are you excited for the new season of Game of Thrones? How do you think the show will end?