The Starks are back on form as Game of Thrones season 7 teaser trailer airs

Game of Thrones season 7 will focus back on the Stark family. Photo / HBO

The first glimpse of Game of Thrones season seven aired on HBO in the US last night.

A short teaser was broadcast during an advertisement break of Westworld, the US network's sci-fi series.

A video of the teaser has been uploaded by a fan on Twitter (video below), along with photographs by others, giving little information about what can be expected from the penultimate Game of Thrones season when it airs next year.

Sansa Stark appears in the new teaser trailer for Game of Thrones season 7. Photo / HBO

The emphasis of the first teaser appears to be on the House of Stark, who have suffered various unpleasant and grisly calamities at the hands of rival Westeros dynasties over the past few seasons before claiming back Winterfell, their homestead, following the Battle of the Bastards at the end of season six.

Stills show Sansa stood in front of the weirwood tree in Godswood in Winterfell, looking shocked. Could this be the moment when she and her estranged younger sister Arya finally reunite?

Arya on horseback. Photo / HBO, ‏@sansaerysnow Twitter

Arya, meanwhile, is shown riding a horse. The youngest female Stark escaped from The House of Black and White in season six after realising that she had business to undertake back in Westeros. This would suggest she is getting on with it.

Jon Snow, Arya and Sansa's half-brother (or is he?) is shown in conversation with a woman with hair the length and colour of Sansa's. This had led some to believe that he is deserting Winterfell to join forces with Daenerys, who, along with her dragons, is making her way over from Meereen to claim the Iron Throne.

Jon Snow and Sansa discuss. Photo / HBO, ‏@sansaerysnow Twitter

Season seven of Game of Thrones will air later than the show's traditional mid-April season premiere, and will consist of just seven, rather than 10, episodes.

Already fans have been clamouring for information about the new season, with significant plot leaks emerging just a few weeks ago.