First photo of final Game of Thrones season released

We might have to wait until next year to finally, finally watch the eighth and er, final season of Game of Thrones, but fans across the world are rejoicing after Entertainment Weekly published a first-look cover — we'll take anything! — of the show's final season.

Indeed, even though the final GoT won't go to air until 2019, EW sated the appetites of fans across the globe with the publication of its stunning cover featuring new lovers and possible relatives Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and our beloved mother of dragons, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).

And in a ripping special report EW managed to get the characters of our beloved show to open up about what we might expect without saying much at all.

The first official photo from #GameOfThrones’ final season is here! Get exclusive details on the most impossible finale in TV history in our report from the #GoT set: https://t.co/wjWGa4K2Yr pic.twitter.com/59aFZkCR0U

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) November 1, 2018

The cast all spoke about receiving their final scripts, which could only be accessed by codes more difficult to nab than Donald Trump's nuclear button.

Emilia Clarke told the mag she raced home to read with a good cuppa.

"Genuinely the effect it had on me was profound," she said.

Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion Lannister, said he broke one of his own cardinal rules.

"This was the first time ever that I didn't skip to the end," the actor told the publication.

Sophie Turner, who plays Sansa, said she devoured the scripts as quickly as possible. "It was completely overwhelming," the actress told the magazine. "Afterwards I felt numb, and I had to take a walk for hours."

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Kit Harrington, however, refused to read anything until he reconvened with the rest of the cast at the first table read of the season.

"I walked in saying, 'Don't tell me, I don't want to know,'" the man otherwise known as Jon Snow told the publication. "What's the point of reading it to myself in my own head when I can listen to people do it and find out with my friends?"

When the season is finally released, the actors will have endured a massive 10-month shoot to make just six episodes, with each episode rumoured to have cost around $A21 million.

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Producers have described each episode as being like a "mini-movie".

"It's relentless; scenes that would have been a one-day shoot five years ago are now a five-day shoot," Harrington told the publication.

Meanwhile, it was announced earlier this week that Aussie actress Naomi Watts would play the lead role in a GoT prequel.