On April 17 it will be 10 years since you first borrowed someone’s HBO credentials (and / or logged in unscrupulous website) to watch the first episode of Game of Thrones, making it a full decade since the happy Stark kids all got a cuddly wolf puppy to love, a decade since Sansa first glimpsed the adorable Joffrey Baratheon, and a decade since Jaime Lannister thought about things lovingly which he does out of love. To celebrate the occasion, and possibly to remind viewers that there was a time when Game of Thrones was pretty much universally acclaimed, HBO has announced a month-long event called The Iron Anniversary featuring a bunch of HBO Max stuff, a “MaraThrone” on HBO (it’s a play on “marathon”), and some sort of special prize giveaway for people “that were married in Westeros themed ceremonies. ” Finally one Game of Thrones marriage will result in something other than a knife in the stomach and confusing questions from your family members (“Isn’t that the show about incest?” No Nana, it’s the show where a teenager is sold to a barbarian warlord and then gives birth to dragons , and yes, there is incest.)
The HBO Max stuff will be a new one Game of Thrones “Spotlight page” with curated episode collections, easter egg guides and a ton of behind-the-scenes videos and cast interviews, and there will be some kind of charity challenge where you have to watch the entire season. Sounds like the episode collections are based on watching episodes in a different order, like you just want to see the Daenerys storyline or you just love the big battle scenes. The MaraThrone, meanwhile, kicks off on HBO2 April 10 and runs through every episode of the series.
You can see a teaser for the Iron Anniversary event below (but actually it’s only a 40 second high for the show).
[via Deadline]