Game of Thrones Season 5 Spoilers: HBO Releases More Photos of Sand Snakes, Jon Snow

Season 5 of HBO's Game of Thrones premieres on Sunday, April 12, so the wait is almost over. To tide us over, HBO has released some new photos from the new season.

Check them out below:

We're getting closer and closer to the end of the series as originally envisioned by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who have said they want to conclude the series after seven seasons.

But that's from a creative standpoint. From a ratings and financial perspective, GoT is a smashing success for HBO. In fact, it's one of the most lucrative and popular shows in the network's history. So it's understandable, then, that the network would prefer to keep the show going.

"This is the hard part of what we do," HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told EW.com. "We started this journey with David and Dan. It's their vision. Would I love the show to go 10 years as both a fan and a network executive? Absolutely."

So what happens if the network and the creative forces behind the show come into conflict? "We'll have an honest conversation that explores all possible avenues," Lombardo says. "If they weren't comfortable going beyond seven seasons, I trust them implicitly and trust that's the right decision-as horrifying as that is to me. What I'm not going to do is have a show continue past where the creators believe where they feel they've finished with the story."

George R.R. Martin, who wrote (and is still writing) the books on which the series is based, has said he would like to conclude the series with a movie. But Lombardo doesn't appear to be on board with that. "Certainly there have been conversations where it's been said, 'Wouldn't it be cool to do that?'" Lombardo said. "But when you start a series with our subscribers, the promise is that for your HBO fee that we're going to take you to the end of this. I feel that on some level [a movie would be] changing the rules: Now you have to pay $16 to see how your show ends."

What do you think of the photos? Let us know in the comments section.