What's HBO hiding? It's blacked out whatever's chasing Arya in the Game of Thrones trailer - except for these details

News
By published

What could be chasing Arya in the Game of Thrones season 8 trailer?

We’re not used to seeing Arya scared. So the sight of her sprinting down a corridor, dragonglass knife in hand, looking absolutely petrified in the Game of Thrones season 8 trailer, has me shaking to be honest. But HBO are clearly reluctant to show us what’s pursuing the Stark assassin, as they’ve expertly blacked out whatever’s giving chase. But using our video wizardry we’ve managed to find a couple of frames that show what could be after her. 

Look carefully at the gif below and you can see a claw and a foot just out from the black mask applied to the scene. The mask cuts across the pillar, meaning that it was definitely added in post-production, so HBO are most definitely trying to hide something. It’s definitely someone - or something - running after Arya, but as she has a dragonglass dagger in one hand, why isn’t she attacking it?So perhaps it’s not a White Walker or wight. It might be some other being completely, or even a human. Look at the frame just before the pillar cuts across the screen and you can see a faint flicker, as if something is carrying a torch - or is set on fire. But why oh why would Arya run from a fight? 

Either she has an essential message to deliver as soon as possible and can’t be held back by any means, or she’s running to part of Winterfell castle that’s being quarantined. The first scene in the trailer depicts our Stark assassin petrified and seemingly trying to hold her breath, as if she’s being hunted by something - and this scene would imply that it’s now hot on her heels. 

A theory on Reddit about the Game of Thrones ending is that either the wights have infiltrated Winterfell and she’s becoming overwhelmed (so a horde of wights could be chasing her) or (and dear god, this is a good theory) that the dead have started to rise from the Winterfell crypts where civilians are sheltering. Arya could therefore be legging it to go and save them, as abandoning a fight to help those in need is more likely than her fleeing because her fears have got the best of her. 

As hyped for Game of Thrones season 8 as I am? If the answer is yes, you’re going to want to look at these Game of Thrones theories asap…

Zoe Delahunty-Light
Zoe Delahunty-Light

While here at GamesRadar, Zoe was a features writer and video presenter for us. She's since flown the coop and gone on to work at Eurogamer where she's a video producer, and also runs her own Twitch and YouTube channels. She specialises in huge open-world games, true crime, and lore deep-dives.