Game of Thrones: Is Cersei pregnant? Or is she lying?

After two years of waiting, Game of Thrones has finally returned. **Spoilers for the season eight premiere ahead**

Whether the eighth season – the show’s last – will bring resolution to Westeros remains a mystery, though fans are hoping that their many, many questions will be answered.

One of the biggest talking points so far has concerned Cersei Lannister and whether the Mad Queen is actually pregnant with Jaime Lannister’s baby.

Midway through season seven, Cersei revealed to Jaime that they were having another baby. She later told Tyrion in order to persuade him that she was telling the truth about teaming up with the Stark army to save the North from White Walkers (something we later discover to be a lie).

One of the few things that convinced Tyrion was Cersei deciding to abandon her favourite pastime: guzzling glasses of wine. Yet, come season eight, Cersei’s back on the reds, drinking a glass post-sex with Euron Greyjoy during the season premiere.

This all begs the question: was Cersei lying to Jaime and Tyrion just to get them on her side?

There are two clues in the scripts for season seven that hint that Cersei was telling the truth. Vanity Fair points out that, when she tells Jaime about the news, the script reads: “She nods, it’s true... Her happiness is contagious. They get another chance at family. This time with no one standing in their way.”

Then, when tells Tyrion, the pages read: “Tyrion sees what he sees and knows what it means. He can hardly believe it, but knows it to be true. [. . .] She stays silent for too long, long enough to tell him that he’s right. And once she knows he knows, she can think of nothing else to say.”

Unfortunately, though, Cersei being pregnant does not fit particularly well with a certain prophecy.

Season five of Game of Thrones opened with Cersei being told by Maggy the Frog that she would only have three children. “Gold shall be their crowns and gold their shrouds. And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”

We have already met Cersei’s three now-deceased children: Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen. How can she have another?

Speculators widely believe that Cersei will have a miscarriage, as foreshadowed by a scene in A Feast for Crows.

“To break her fast the queen sent to the kitchens for two boiled eggs, a loaf of bread, and a pot of honey,” the passage reads. ”But when she cracked the first egg and found a bloody half-formed chick inside, her stomach roiled.”

Should a miscarriage happen, the question fans have then concerns when the event will unfold. Some believe Cersei has already had a miscarriage off-screen: hence the bedding of Euron.

Worryingly for the Starks, should Cersei have lost the baby, then the Mad Queen will no doubt want vengeance on the world, in any form.

“All that’s ever mattered to Cersei is her children and, in relatively short order, Cersei has lost all of her children,” showrunner DB Weiss said in a behind-the-scenes clip for season seven. ”She now is in a very dark place, and all she really has left is power for the sake of power.”

With Tyrion hoping his sister does not turn on the Starks – going as far as to stake his reputation on that hope – things could get tricky for the two Lannister brothers in Winterfell.

The final season of Game of Thrones continues every Sunday. You can watch the trailer for season two here. The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.