New Game of Thrones Season 8 Teaser Features an Important Callback to the Very First Episode

On Sunday, January 13, HBO finally shared the air date for Game of Thrones's eighth and final season, along with a 90-second promo that featured Jon Snow and Sansa and Arya Stark walking through the Crypts of Winterfell with the voices of the late Lyanna, Catelyn, and Ned Stark heard as they passed each of their statues.

In the immediate aftermath of the new teaser, the biggest question on people's minds seemed to be the whereabouts of Bran Stark—and whether his absence from the trailer confirmed one of the long-held fan theories that Bran is in fact the Night King, or that he is the Three-Eyed Raven. But now that fans have had additional time to digest the footage, they've noticed something else: a clever callback to the series' first-ever episode from 2011.

Just after the 1:00 mark, the camera closes in on feather which quickly freezes over with ice. To the casual viewer, this may not seem like an important thing. But those who recall the show's tiniest details recognized the feather as a callback to the pilot episode of Game of Thrones, and a symbol of Jon Snow's true parentage.

As Business Insider reminds us in "Winter is Coming"—the first aired episode of Game of Thrones—Lyanna's statue was shown in very much the same way that we see it in the new teaser, with King Robert Baratheon placing a feather on it. Fast forward to the fifth season, and you may remember Sansa visiting Lyanna's crypt and picking up that same feather. Both of these scenes hinted that Lyanna was Jon's real mother—a fact that was confirmed in season seven, when it was revealed that he is indeed the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen, who were secretly married in Dorne. (Though Jon doesn't know it yet.)

Ever since that revelation, we've suspected that Jon—who is believed to be the bastard son of Ned Stark—will finally learn about his parents in the final season, and the teaser seems to confirm that it will be an important storyline. Especially considering the growing romance between Jon and Daenerys Targaryen, who is Rhaegar's sister … making her Jon's aunt (unbeknownst to either of them, of course).

The final season of Game of Thrones will premiere on April 14, 2019.