'Game of Thrones' to have 'haunting,' 'bittersweet' final season

Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Game of Thrones fans can expect the show to have a "haunting" and "bittersweet" final season.

Co-executive producer Bryan Cogman and stars Emilia Clarke and Kit Harington teased Season 8 of the HBO series in the Nov. 9 issue of Entertainment Weekly.

"It's all about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death," Cogman told the magazine.

"It's an incredible emotional haunting bittersweet final season and I think it honors very much what [author George R.R. Martin] set out to do -- which is flipping this kind of story on its head," he added.

Game of Thrones is based on Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series. Clarke and Harington, who play Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow, said the cast endured a demanding 10-month shoot to film the final six episodes.

"It's relentless; scenes that would have been a one-day shoot five years ago are now a five-day shoot," Harington said. "They want to get it right, they want to shoot everything every single way so they have options."

Harington said in a previous interview with Deadline that he was feeling the weight of fan expectations. He told the publication he fears the eighth and final season will "let people down."

"I think there's a certain pressure I've not felt before," the actor shared.

"Obviously, we don't want to [let people down] so we're very much stepping up everyone'e game which is very apparent, at least to me," he said. "We're all growing a bit and I think everyone's attention is very focused on what we're doing."

Game of Thrones Season 8 will premiere in 2019. HBO is developing a prequel series starring Naomi Watts and Josh Whitehouse that is set thousands of years before the events of Game of Thrones.