Entertainment Weekly has released a wealth of new images from the fifth season of Game of Thrones, and they reveal the new looks that many of the fan-favourite characters (including Arya and Tyrion) will have when the critically acclaimed HBO drama returns. We also get to see the debut of the Sand Snakes!

It’s been reported that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss hope to end the series with the seventh season, but HBO programming president Michael Lombardo revealed that they’re not quite ready to say goodbye to their most popular show just yet. “We started this journey with David and Dan. It’s their vision. Would I love the show to go 10 years as both a fan and a network executive? Absolutely.”

“We’ll have an honest conversation that explores all possible avenues,” he added in regards to HBO’s hopes to potentially continue the story. “If they weren’t comfortable going beyond seven seasons, I trust them implicitly and trust that’s the right decision—as horrifying as that is to me. What I’m not going to do is have a show continue past where the creators believe where they feel they’ve finished with the story.”

Whether they split the final season up over two years or even create some sort of spinoff, it doesn’t sound like HBO are too keen on finishing things off with a movie due to that somewhat snubbing their subscribers.

The showrunners meanwhile won’t be pressured into stretching Game of Thrones out too far. “We know basically how many hours are left in this story,” Benioff says. “We don’t want to add 10 hours to that. It’s about finding that sweet spot so it works for us and for HBO and, most of all, it works for the audience.”

Game of Thrones will finally return to HBO on April 12th in the US, and the 13th on Sky Atlantic in the UK. Are you looking forward to Game of Thrones coming back to TV? See the full-length trailer by clicking here.