"Game of Thrones" fans have known from the first season (Ned Stark, nooooo!) that author George R.R. Martin is willing to kill off any character, no matter how beloved. Now that the show has moved beyond Martin's books, it looks like characters still aren't safe.

HBO executives attending the Innovative TV Conference in Israel this week say the deaths come fast and furious in the final season, Variety reports.

"None of the cast had received the scripts prior, and one by one they started falling down to their deaths," said Francesca Orsi, HBO senior vice president of drama.

Naturally, no one dared reveal who exactly gets to take the big dirt nap (Cersei? Jaime? Jon Snow? TYRION?). But Orsi said there were tears after the final six scripts were read.

"It was amazing," she said. "By the very end, everyone looked down, and looked up, and tears were in their eyes."

"Game of Thrones" is set to return to HBO sometime in 2019. And fans are still waiting for author Martin's next book in the series, "The Winds of Winter," which has no announced release date.