Winter is never coming.
That’s what many Game of Thrones fans thought when they were left hanging during HBO’s season seven premiere date reveal on Thursday.
During a Facebook Live event set to reveal the return date for the beloved drama, the network’s video abruptly ended before its big unveiling. HBO announced plans to reveal the date on Facebook and when users visited the show’s page at 2 p.m. ET, a video showing a block of ice appeared, along with the drama’s signature theme song, launching users into an interactive journey.
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Encouraging visitors to “rally the realm,” they were instructed to type “Fire” into the comments section to help melt the ice and unveil the premiere date.
But 15 minutes in — and with more than 1 million views and climbing — the video’s feed was cut. After a few minutes, the official Game of Thrones Twitter account announced “we will be back and ready for more fire soon.”
We will be back and ready for more fire soon. #GoTS7
— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) March 9, 2017
Sources told THR the video went down due to a glitch with Facebook, and the standard length for a Facebook Live event was not a factor.
Within a few minutes the video was back up, but the unknown moments in between spurred a flurry of online conversation. Many took to Twitter to at first applaud the originality of the event, and then express their anger and frustration when the feed was lost. There was then a shared joy when the feed came back up.
The video went down a second time, however, sending users back into a tizzy. When it returned — now more than an hour since the event began — the page asked users to type “Fire” or “Dracarys” and promised, “almost there.”
Almost there Game of Thrones fans. Comment FIRE or DRACARYS to reveal the #GoTS7 date.
Posted by Game of Thrones on Thursday, March 9, 2017
At 3:12 p.m. ET, the date was finally revealed: July 16, 2017.
See the flurry of emotions from Game of Thrones fans during Thursday’s reveal below.
I am literally sitting here, watching ice melt on the Game of Thrones facebook live stream. pic.twitter.com/iQlxjZDC6Z
— GloriousGe0rge (@GloriousGe0rge) March 9, 2017
Smart play @HBO 111k concurrents watching to help reveal GOT S7 premiere date. https://t.co/Xjd4IyB9U3
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) March 9, 2017
Someone at HBO right now is like, “Shit, maybe we shouldn’t have put the premiere date in quite so big a block of ice.”
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) March 9, 2017
Fire. Oh, wait, wrong window.
— Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) March 9, 2017
104k people watching a block of ice be melted for game of thrones. This is amazing #GameofThrones
— Tom ?? (@GinUndTomic) March 9, 2017
game of thrones: contributing to global warming one release date at a time
— lauren (@sansastcrk) March 9, 2017
So who else is watching HBO melt a block of ice to reveal the Game of Thrones premiere date / craving the sweet release of death? pic.twitter.com/BBjuUwzbj8
— Caroline Framke (@carolineframke) March 9, 2017
Next year, @HBO, a press release will do. #GameOfThrones
— Brienne of Tarth (@BeautyBrienne) March 9, 2017
I watched ice melting for 15 minutes just so the live stream could end #GoTS7
— Osha (@oshawildling) March 9, 2017
@HBO I cannot believe you conned me into watching a Facebook live stream of MELTING ICE and then botched the reveal. #GOTs7
— Miss Hella (@Hellacit) March 9, 2017
You better be bringing a dragon in to melt that block of ice. https://t.co/Ok5KWSl1kL
— Jon Snow (@JonNightsWatch) March 9, 2017
Well 15 mins of melting ice later, this happened–without a Game of Thrones premiere date: pic.twitter.com/kBVBoMAHmo
— John Koblin (@koblin) March 9, 2017
What a way to reveal the #GameofThrones Season 7 premiere date. #gots7 pic.twitter.com/i4WGlHhUC6
— Bill Kuchman (@billkuchman) March 9, 2017
Game of Thrones fail
— Marlow Stern (@MarlowNYC) March 9, 2017
Sorry, I keep typing “VINYL” into that Game of Thrones thing and it’s making the ice freeze back up.
— Rob Wesley (@eastwes) March 9, 2017
Whoever is in charge of the @GameofThrones S7 premier date reveal is getting a visit from Septa Unella. @HBO @WiCnet @CulturessFS #GoTS7 pic.twitter.com/K3nZPwUmQu
— I. A. Melton (@ijamelton) March 9, 2017
Wow. The #GOTs7 ice block says “La La Land”
— Matt Miller (@Official_MattM) March 9, 2017
