You didn't REALLY think the final season of "Game of Thrones" was coming in 2018, did you? Oh you sweet summer child...

Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark) talked to Variety about filming the end, saying they started in October and are "maybe a tenth of the way through" filming. That was a joke, though, and she added that they have about six or seven months left of shooting, which keeps them on track to end in the summer of 2018 as expected.

HBO has yet to release a Season 8 premiere date, but here's what Turner told Variety in answer to a question about her future projects:

Variety: Are you excited for next year, with "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" and season eight of "Game of Thrones" set to premiere?
Sophie Turner: Yeah, I'm really excited. "Game of Thrones" comes out in 2019. "Dark Phoenix" is in November. Then I have a couple indie movies coming out. I'm a producer on my next movie ["Girl Who Fell From the Sky"]. So I'm really excited about the future.

(Side note: Speaking of "Dark Phoenix," the first photos of Turner and company just came out.)

There are only six more episodes left to "Game of Thrones," but they will be intense. On that note, Variety asked Turner how Sansa Stark will handle what's ahead without Littlefinger as her adviser:

"It's going to be tricky for her, because at the end of last season, she felt that she had everything set up. She had her family back together. They were in control of the North again. This season, there's a new threat, and all of a sudden she finds herself somewhat back in the deep end. And without Littlefinger, it's a test for her of whether she can get through it. It's a big challenge for her, without this master manipulator having her back. This season is more a passionate fight for her than a political, manipulative kind of fight."

Variety asked if that's because she "faces less a political threat and more an existential, zombie sort of threat?" but Turner wouldn't say. She can't tell us everything.

The six episodes ahead will surely be filled with White Walker threats, since Season 7 ended with the destruction of The Wall, and Winterfell is the first stop on the way down through the Seven Kingdoms.

The Lady of Winterfell is going to be tested, for sure. She has to protect her people in the North and her homeland. But if her fight is more passionate than political, that suggests that she's not dragged into whatever machinations Cersei Lannister has planned next. Maybe that will be left to Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow.

"Game of Thrones" Season 8 will premiere in 2019. Not "officially" from HBO, but just get used to seeing it that way so it hurts less each time.

Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook.