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'Game of Thrones': What's ahead for season 6

'Game of Thrones' returns on HBO for a new season on April 24. What's next for the characters of Westeros?

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Helen Sloan/HBO/File
'Game of Thrones' stars Gwendoline Christie as Brienne of Tarth, one of the few women warriors of Westeros.

The smash hit HBO fantasy series “Game of Thrones” is returning for a sixth season. 

“Thrones,” which airs a new episode on April 24, takes place in a fantasy land called Westeros where members from rival familes are attempting to take the throne. Stars include Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Emilia Clarke, and Maisie Williams, among many others. 

Last season, “Thrones” took the best drama Emmy for the first time in its run, marking the first time a fantasy series has won the prize. The show has become HBO’s most popular ever. 

The program has also become famous for its no-one-is-safe approach, with multiple lead character deaths and twists. “What if the hero dies – that was part of the original pitch,” co-creator David Benioff remembered in an interview with Variety, referencing the death of seeming protagonist Ned Stark (Sean Bean) in season one.

Now as the HBO drama begins a new run of episodes, the televised story has finally gone beyond the books by George R.R. Martin on which the program is based. Fans are eager to find out what’s happened to the seemingly dead military commander Jon Snow (Kit Harington). 

The world of the show is famously one in which moral dilemmas are rarely black and white, and Ms. Williams recently spoke about the choices her character, orphaned Arya, faces.

“She’s very confused,” Williams said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “She’s experienced far too much for any person, let alone a child. She doesn’t know what the right decision is.... She’s not your favorite character because she always does the right thing. She’s a real person, and sometimes you’re going to disagree with what she does. That’s what I love about the show. I think you’re going to see more of her emotions and decisions coming out this season that are different than what your ‘favorite character’ might do. She’s losing that feisty-little-girl thread.”

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