HBO’s hit Emmy-winning drama Game of Thrones will debut its eighth and final season starting in April, the US network has announced in a trailer released online.

The video featured footage from previous seasons to recap the costly battles that preceded the coming showdown for control of the fictional kingdom of Westeros.

The network did not reveal a specific date for the final season’s premiere.

Game of Thrones, which has won multiple Emmy awards, is HBO’s biggest hit ever with some 30 million viewers in the United States and an army of devoted fans worldwide.

Several spinoffs of the series are in the works.

HBO said in June that it had given a pilot order to a prequel that will take place thousands of years before the events of the current series.