Game Of Thrones Season 8 Trailer Review: 7 Ups And 5 Downs

3. Not Showing The White Walkers

There's a pretty big missing element of this trailer and it's the smartest character decision in the entire thing. It's not any of the missing characters: not the direwolves, not Melisandre, not Euron, not Bronn, not Theon or Yara, not Hot Pie... but the enemy.

This could have been no more than a 90 second reminder of the fact that Winter IS coming with a slow march of the dead through the North towards Winterfell. It would have sought to transmit the same message, but it would have been way less subtle and arguably not showing the White Walkers or their army at all is vastly more effective.

This way, we get to experience the threat the same way the living characters do, like the audience watching Jaws and only hearing those familiar musical notes. We know what's coming and the trailer leans heavily on us reading between the lines to scare ourselves right up until those two decaying legs appear. It's really, really great storytelling.