Game of Thrones season 8: Who are The Golden Company and how will they affect episode 1?

With the return of Game of Thrones mere hours away, fans are poring over the trailer looking for details of what to expect in season eight.

One such theory doing the rounds relates to a non-White Walker threat that is set to have huge importance in the HBO show’s final run.

The threat in question has been mentioned on the show before, most notably in the final episode of season seven: when Cersei (Lena Headey) seemingly agrees to a temporary truce with Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Jon Snow (Kit Harington) in a bid to attempt to defeat the oncoming threat of White Walkers, she later reveals to a distressed Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) that she plans to use this opportunity to her advantage with thanks to a mysterious group known as The Golden Company.

Earlier in the season, during an exchange with the Iron Bank’s Tycho Nestoris (Mark Gatiss), Cersei said she needed help growing her army and highlighted that Qyburn (Anton Lesser) has been making “overtures” to the Golden Company. So, who is this mysterious group?

The answer: a collection of 10,000-strong mercenary sellswords based in Essos. They were mentioned as early as season four, when Davos (Liam Cunningham) told Stannis (Stephen Dillane) to hire the group, stating that they had some of the most skilled fighters in the land. Furthermore, Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) used to fight as part of them.

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The Golden Company could be exactly what Cersei needs to provide her with a chance to keep the Iron Throne – and its fleeting mention can’t be coincidental especially considering its mention in George R.R. Martin’s source material is fairly crucial to its events.

IGN points out that the group was founded by Targaryen bastard Aegor Rivers, and – comprised of exiles from across the land – has one rather important member: Aegon Targaryen, the son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell who supposedly perished at the hand of Gregor Clegane (otherwise known as The Mountain) before the book series’s events even began. In the books, he was rescued by Jon Connington, a character whose storyline has (kind of) been handed to Jorah in the series.

Rather hugely, the season seven finale revealed the true heritage of Jon Snow, as well as his real name: Aegon Targaryen – the sixth of his name.

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How this will all be woven into the series at such a late stage (there are just six episodes left) remains unknown, but the reveal of Snow’s true name bears huge magnitude. Still, considering the majority of Aegon’s storyline has been handed to Jorah suggests he could have somehow intercepted Qyburn’s meet with The Golden Company, potentially luring them away from Lannisters towards Targaryen rule in the process.

Either way, The Golden Company will be shaking things up quite a bit before the series reaches its climax.

The final season of Game of Thrones continues every Sunday.

You can find our extensive ranking of every episode – from the worst to best – below.

The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.