David Benioff and D.B. Weiss Promised Me Season Five of Game of Thrones Will Be the Best Season Yet

In my books to tell you anything about the season five premiere episode of Game of Thrones "The Wars to Come" other than the fact that it exists and it airs April 12th would be a spoiler, but I attended the event in San Francisco on Monday and I can tell you a little bit about that, and who was there, and who I saw, and the titillating details you no doubt came here for because you can't wait another second for 9 p.m. on April 12th to come.

The premiere was held at San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House Monday March 23, apparently to ignite buzz with the social media/tech community in the city, and the crowd was largely made up of random Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, Apple etc. employees and their plus ones. Plenty of series actors attended and I was able to catch a glimpse of them — not enough maneuverability or proximity for a selfie but at least I was just feet from Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), Bronn (Jerome Flynn), HODOR! (Kristian Nairn), Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), what I'm pretty sure was Lancel Lannister (Eugene Simon), and the father of the mother of dragons himself Mr. George R. R. Martin!

Also in attendance were Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner), and Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen). I caught a peek of Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) but I didn't get any pictures of them (frowny face). You can see below though that Nathalie was a stunning show-stealer (Nikolaj wasn't too bad to look at either).

HBO CEO Richard Plepler thanked George R. R. Martin and introduced David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, calling all three creators “geniuses and gentlemen” and stating that the words genius and gentlemen don’t go together as often as you might think. Then David Benioff and D.B. Weiss let us in on the strategy they deliver to the network for every season of Game of Thrones: that each season be better than the next. That’s a really high bar that they continually set for themselves, but you can take it as a promise that Game of Thrones season five is going to be the best season yet (would David Benioff and D. B. Weiss lie to you? Didn’t think so.)

Below are the pictures I managed to snap; they're pretty bad, but have a click through the gallery to see how close I was to Arya, Bronn, Hodor, Stannis, Petyr, Lancel and King R. R. Martin!

Excited for season five? Me too! Check back for my review of the Game of Thrones season five premiere April 12th. In the meantime, if you beg me for spoilers in my comments section ... it probably won't hurt (but no promises!)