HBO has quietly scrubbed the misplaced coffee cup out of the “Game of Thrones” episode that aired Sunday night. The premium cabler acknowledged the gaffe Monday after fans spotted the takeout cup on a table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in a scene in episode 4 of season 8 just before the 17:40 mark. It resembled a Starbucks cup but in fact came from the production’s craft services — and where someone left it behind in Winterfell.

While “Game of Thrones” wrapped up the storyline of the Night King and the White Walkers in last week’s “The Battle of Winterfell,” this week’s episode threw fans back into the battle for the Iron Thrones at remarkable speed. David Nutter, who directed not only “The Last of the Starks” but also episodes one and two of this season, said in an interview with Variety that the little moments during the post-battle celebration scene set up the tension that would fill the rest of the episode.

Upsetting things that have happened on Game of Thrones season 8: Jon Snow rejected Ghost without so much as giving him a pat on the head. Jaime left Brienne after sleeping with her, completely abandoning his redemption arc in the process. Another dragon was killed. Bran Stark keeps claiming he can see everything and then not even bothering to warg over to King’s Landing and get details about Cersei’s plan. Oh, and the Battle of Winterfell was so dark that half the viewers couldn’t even see it.

The global demand on the day of Game of Thrones’ 8th season premiere exceeded the global premiere demand of every other TV series – including Game of Thrones’ own global season 7 premiere day demand – for any season across all platforms and markets under measurement. Parrot Analytics, a TV content analytics firm specializing in global audience demand measurement, partnered with Guinness World Records to chart the demand and declare it officially Most in-demand TV premiere.

Night Daddy™.

Sadaf Ahsan: The character of Arya has never followed any traditional tropes — and, for some, this has proven to be awfully confusing

In the second episode of the final season of Game of Thrones, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” winter has come, and with it, an army the undead. Jon Snow has devised a battle plan to defend Winterfell, and ultimately the realms of men. So what does a U.S. military officer have to say about these best-laid plans? Sadly, Jon Snow could use the help of the evil yet battle-savvy Ramsey Bolton right about now. 

Game of Thrones is ending, which has to be a little weird for George R.R. Martin, who wrote the still-unfinished novel series on which the show is based. Famously, the show adapted the books for the first five or so seasons but had to keep going when it ran out of book material. With the ending of Game of Thrones just a few weeks away, Martin will watch the ending of his story before he gets a chance to write it.

Forget the War of the Five Kings: The running for whose Game of Thrones spinoff idea will see the light of day is turning out to be just as intriguing. In a new Hollywood Reporter post, series writer and co-executive producer Bryan Cogman says his concept for a Thrones spinoff “is not happening and will not happen. HBO decided to go a different way.”

Shiny and sharp, obsidian is enjoying a bit of a pop culture moment. It plays a central role in HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones, now wrapping its final season. Called dragonglass on the show, obsidian is one of only two substances that can cut down White Walkers, malevolent otherworldly warriors. In the real world, the volcanic glass reveals the human story in a way no other material can.

With the rise of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements, Hollywood is facing issues of consent, harassment and sexual assault in the workplace head on.

Instead of kicking off with a bang, the first episode of Game of Thrones season 8 strategically placed the characters exactly where they needed to be as the encroaching Winter drew close. As part of the preparations for battle, “Winterfell” gifted viewers a number of reunions — the most heartening of which saw Jon Snow and Arya meet for the first time since the beginning of the series. Jon was never particularly close with Sansa, who often alienated him due to his status as a bastard. However, when the pair reconvened after several seasons apart, they were ecstatic to see each other.

I have eagerly awaited the final season of Game of Thrones, and its strange blend of fictive medieval Britain, supernatural monsters, and pornography. Over the seasons the plot has gained speed and focus while the pornography has vanished and—incredible as it seems—we can also detect that George R.R. Martin’s fantastic story has a message. Perhaps we can explain its enormous success by considering how, at a subconscious, dreamlike level, it deals with humanity’s most profound problem.

It won't surprise you to hear that Game of Thrones is a pirate magnet, but the sheer scale of that piracy may be reaching new heights. The analytics company MUSO has determined that people pirated the show's season eight premiere just shy of 55 million times in the first 24 hours. About 76.6 percent of those viewers relied on bootleg streams, while the rest were split between downloads (12.2 percent), public torrents (10.8 percent) and private torrents (0.5 percent).

“Game of Thrones” opened to massive ratings on Sunday night. According to figures released by HBO, the Season 8 premiere drew 17.4 million viewers across all platforms (linear, HBOGO and HBO NOW), including 11.8 million who watched on the linear channel. And that is only those who watched Sunday night. Expect the total viewers to go up considerably once delayed viewing is factored into the final numbers.

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss discuss the final season of their blockbuster HBO series in a deep-dive, spoiler-free conversation. Below are new behind-the-scenes insights about creating the hugely anticipated final six episodes of the global fantasy hit as the Emmy-winning duo discuss writing the finale, the season’s massive battle episode, author George R.R. Martin’s contribution, fears about spoiler leakage, their favorite scenes, and their rare arguments amid an obsessive drive to create the best possible drama. (Note: A few of these quotes were previously published in EW’s season 8 cover stories.)

Few people are happy to see Game of Thrones come to an end, even if millions of viewers around the world are excited to see how the story wraps up. Firmly in the former camp: George R.R. Martin, the award-winning author who first introduced the world to Westeros in 1996's A Game of Thrones, the first book in the ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire odyssey.

The perfect snack for your Game of Thrones viewing party.

“I’ve never told this story publicly, but now it’s time.”

Here are the alleged runtimes of each of the episodes in season 8 of Game of Thrones.