Game of Thrones season 6: Director promises most exciting premiere yet 'starts off with a bang'

No word on the fate of Jon Snow but it's all about the drama next season

Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones (Home Box Office)

Game of Thrones fans anxiously awaiting what's in store for season six should prepare for it to open "with a bang".

Jeremy Podeswa directed last season's controversial episode "Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken", in which beloved character Sansa Stark was raped by Ramsay Bolton, and is back to helm the first two episodes of the new run.

The hit HBO series is currently shooting in Belfast and various locations in Spain. It's a demanding and complicated schedule and Podeswa is finding the challenge both "very exciting and also a little scary".

He has more confidence this time around, helped by knowing the mechanics and dynamics of the cast, and he's promised viewers that they have much to look forward to.

"Expectations are always very high at the beginning of the season, and checking in with all of the characters is a daunting prospect," he told Yahoo! TV. "What's great about this season is that there's very little expository stuff. It starts off with a bang and you're right into the excitement of the story."

Podeswa knows that a lot is riding on his premiere as season six will be the first to depart from George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novel series. The show has overtaken his books, with long-awaited sixth novel The Winds of Winter yet to be given a release date.

"There's an enormous fan curiosity of where we're going to go, and that makes me equally nervous and excited," Podeswa said. "There have been so many diversions from the original story in the last couple of seasons that I think the audience is ready to go completely off-book.

"I think everyone's going to be really happy. I don't think fans are going to be disappointed."

Sadly, Podeswa stopped short of revealing the fate of Jon Snow, but hinted that the storyline is "propulsive and moving forward" in a "big and expansive" setting.

The wait goes on, and you've got until next spring to get theorising wildly about what might or might not happen next.