You'll Have To 'Bear' With Us: 'Game Of Thrones' Confirms The Fate Of Tormund Giantsbane

With a long wait until fans of HBO's Game of Thrones can head back to the Westerosi winter wonderland, our first signs of spring are on the horizon thanks to the various tidbits from Season 8 spoilers. With the rogue's gallery of famous faces assembling ahead of filming, has a certain fan-favorite character been marked for death by the old gods and the new, or will they live to fight another day?

There is long winter ahead until we find out the fate of Tormund Giantsbane, but new spoilers suggest that we may not need to all pitch in for a snow plough. It looks like the worn warrior will get to continue his foul-mouthed crusade across the land — cue cheers from all seven kingdoms. While we can't guarantee that the bearded brute will be one of those select few who will exit Season 8 with their life still intact (will anyone?), he will at least be around at the start of the show's swansong run of only six episodes

Take A Walk On The Wildling Side

As well as having the best beard in the realm — sorry Season 5 Tyrion — shippers of Brimund have been hoping that our bear-f*cking friend will get to bag Brienne the Beauty before the story comes to an end. However, with the powers that be already teasing a tragic end to Tormund's romantic tryst, the reformed wildling was left with his life hanging in the balance during Season 7's shocking finale.

As the good and the great of #GameofThrones gathered for a Season 8 table read, there was a spoilerific tease of Tormund's fate simply by having actor Kristofer Hivju there. Thrones is pretty solid at not restricting its characters to lame flashbacks, so the appearance of Hivju in Belfast all but confirms he survived his icy brush with death in "The Dragon and the Wolf."

Sadly, there is still no sign of Richard Dormer, suggesting that an equally MIA Beric Dondarrion may have finally run out of all those lives he is famed for. That being said, for a show that is great at giving everyone a definitive ending, we could always see Beric return just in time to be flambéed by Viserion's blue flame.

Also, it is interesting to note that Hivju is seen alongside Ben Crompton who plays Dolorous Edd. As Edd is the stand-in Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, the pairing would suggest that Tormund at least makes it back to Castle Black to sound the alarm about the approaching horde of White Walkers. However, after seeing 8,000 years of ice and snow tumble alongside a flying zombie dragon, I'm pretty sure most of the Seven Kingdoms now knows the Night King is coming.

Eagle-eyed theorists had already guessed that we would see a flash of ginger rise from the snowdrifts in Season 8, but with this being Game of Thrones, no one is sure of anything other than a bumper paycheck and a presumed grisly demise. With Tormund presumably back in action, it would be a waste of two seasons worth of goo-goo eyes for showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to not at least bring Tormund and Brienne back together. Brimund shippers can get back in their boats, because despite those frosty fates trying to intervene, it looks like the hottest couple in Westeros is one step closer to their very own white wedding.