#ICYMI#GoTS7 premieres 7.16 on @HBO. pic.twitter.com/V6czPyMqwa

— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) May 23, 2017

Game of Thrones fans have become accustomed to a slow build at the beginning of a new season, with events slowly coming to a head before exploding over the last two or three episodes. That deliberate pace, which can sometimes be frustrating to fans, will no longer be an issue in the last two seasons.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, several members of the cast and crew confirmed that this season will be unlike any other.

Nicholas Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister, remarked on the heightened pace of the newest season. “I feel like I’d been lulled into a different pace,” Coster-Waldau says. “Everything happened quicker than I’m used to … a lot of things that normally take a season now take one episode.”

The seventh season will also be shorter than its predecessors, and as the events of the show begin to hurtle towards their conclusion and the various characters begin to converge on each other for the final wars, a heightened pace is inevitable.

Jon Snow actor Kit Harington: “This season is really different than any other season because it’s accelerating toward the end, a lot of stuff collides and happens much much quicker than you’re used to seeing on Thrones … it’s so different than what everybody is used to. It’s quite exciting.”

The show released a number of pictures from the new season recently, the most eye-catching of these being Daenarys astride one of her monstrous dragons on a burning battlefield, further evidence of a truly action packed season. Daenarys is advancing on King's Landing, the White Walkers are on the move, and Jon Snow's norther army are also in play.

More pictures from Season 7! Jon, Arya, Sansa, Little Finger, Brienne and Tormund! #GoTS7 #gameofthrones #hbo

A post shared by InstaThrones (@gameofthronesnotofficial) on May 23, 2017 at 1:12am PDT

“Things are moving faster because in the world of these characters the war that they’ve been waiting for is upon them,” showrunner Dan Weiss explains. “The conflicts that have been building the past six years are upon them and those facts give them a sense of urgency that makes [the characters] move faster.”

Given the acclaim with which has greeted the most action packed episodes such as Hardhome or Battle of the Bastards, a whole season of these episodes would certainly go down a treat.