In a surprising move, HBO refused to provide advance screening for 'Game of Thrones' Season 6. Jon Snow still remains a mystery until the show premieres on April.
HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told Entertainment Weekly (EW) that no episodes of "Game of Thrones' will be screened in advance via DVD or online. This would be normally the time that HBO would be sending out copies to some of the industry's experts for their critical appraisal.
However, they have decided to opt out this year. This maybe in the hopes that no content gets leaked before the new season premieres. "We're not sending out press copies this year, anywhere in the world," Lombardo told EW. "There will be no copies for review."
This may have been a first coming from a major series, but most wasn't surprise by the move, EW stated. For the first time, nobody really knows what will happen in the next season as R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novel which the show was largely based on is finished. So even the hardcore fans of the books aren't privy on what will happen in the upcoming season.
EW also noted an incident that happened last year's screening of "Game of Thrones" season 5. As accustomed, HBO sent the first four hours of the season to its media list. As expected, the content was leaked online, spoiling almost half of the season's content.
Since then, HBO has utilized a more secure online screening system but this year, HBO has decided not to take any more chances. "Game of Thrones" executive producers pitched the idea of no-screener to protect the highly anticipated season 6 content and eventually, the executive agreed to the strategy.
Now that there will be no advance screening, the suspense and speculation on Jon Snow's fate have escalated. Jon Snow still remains a mystery until April 24 when "Game of Thrones" season 6 premieres. For now, check out the teaser clip below:
