Given the sheer amount of time we all have to wait for the final season of Game of Thrones, of course a few spoilers were going to be let slip. But this latest is unprecedented – because it’s straight from the assistant director’s mouth (or at least, his keyboard) and it delivers some undeniable intel.
In a now-deleted Instagram post, assistant director Jonathan Quinlan thanks his cast and crew for their efforts after a mammoth 55-day battle scene shoot, news.com.au reports. Spanning “55 consecutive nights, 11 weeks and three locations”, the shoot is the longest of its kind – according to Indiewire, the next biggest was Game of Thrones’ Battle of the Bastards, which was completed in 25 days.
“When tens of millions of people around the world watch this episode a year from now, they won’t know how hard you worked,” the post, preserved by fan site Watchers On The Wall, reads. “They won’t care how tired you were or how tough it was to do your job in sub-freezing temperatures.”
“You’ll never again see anything like it,” Quinlan adds.
According to the post, the battle scene was filmed in Magheramorne, northern Ireland, which is where most of the Castle Black and Wall scenes are filmed.
2019 just can’t come quick enough.
This article originally appeared on marie claire.