Who Is Directing Season 5 of 'Game of Thrones?'

Winter is coming... okay, maybe not until April (gah!) but even the slightest bit of Game of Thrones news is proof that the show is inching back toward us. Now, Entertainment Weekly has announced the line-up of directors for Season 5 of Game of Thrones , which means that stuff is happening. Production has commenced! DREAMS CAN BECOME REALITY... if enough time passes and you preoccupy yourself by binge watching other shows.

The line up that EW reported features a roster of directors with some pretty incredible credits under their respective belts. Episodes 501 and 502 will be helmed by Michael Slovis, who has directed episodes of Breaking Bad and Law & Order: SVU, which means he can totally handle the Westeros bloodshed. Episodes 503 and 504 will be directed by Mark Mylod, who has previously directed episodes of Shameless and Entourage. Episodes 505 and 506 will be led by Jeremy Podeswa, who has previously worked on episodes of The Tutors and Boardwalk Empire. Episodes 507 and 508 will be helmed by Miguel Sapochnik, who has put his directorial touch on House and Fringe. The final two episodes will be spearheaded by David Nutter, who is known as the "pilot whisperer," for having a great record with successful pilots. He has also previously directed four episodes of Game of Thrones.

Now, after your internal fanfare dies down, there are a few things of which you should take note. Firstly, every two episodes are directed by the same person, which may suggest a different sort of storytelling style this season — perhaps every two episodes will focus on a single location or set of characters, or serve as "mini chapters" over a 10-episode arc. Now that so many of our favorite characters are in disparate lands (donde esta, Tyrion? How's life with Littlefinger holdin' up, Sansa? How's the totally badass Arya?), that's a plausible concept.

Also, a few big directorial names are missing from the roster: those of showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff, as well as Alex Graves (who helmed The Purple Wedding and That Episode With The Awful Incestuous Rape Scene) and Neil Marshall, who scored an Emmy nom for his work on "The Watchers on The Wall."

But whatever the Game of Thrones' showrunners have up their sleeves, it's going to be surprising and incredible. And if people lost eyeballs last season (don't remind me — I'M STILL GRIEVING), who knows what they'll lose this season. Perhaps it's time to begin some emotional preparation for Season 5.

Image: HBO; Giphy