HBO Airing ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 1-3 Marathon; HBO.com Launches New Interactives

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Winter is coming. Heck, winter is sort of still here, despite the fact that it’s technically spring. But if this weekend turns out to be one of those awful, cold, rainy/snowy messes much of us in the country have been experiencing, then it might not be so bad to plop down on your sofa and not leave the house for 60 hours.

Season 4 of HBO’s epic fantasy series Game of Thrones premieres this Sunday, April 6th. But while the show has been one of the cable network’s most popular outings – even becoming the most pirated show in history – some folks out there still haven’t given the show a watch. Fear not, potential fans! If you clear up your weekend, you too can be caught up in time for Sunday’s premiere.

Beginning at 9am on April 4th, HBO2 will air all three previous seasons of the show, back-to-back, twice, for 60 intense hours of kings fighting kings, dragons being born and Hodor…well, Hodor-ing around. The second round airing of season 3′s finale will end at 9pm on April 6th, just in time for the season 4 premiere.

The weekend-long marathon will allow fans to binge-watch one of their favorite shows while at the same time luring in new viewers who want to hop aboard the Thrones train in time to watch an undoubtedly intense season (with its potential deviations from the books as well as the upcoming “Purple Wedding”).

HBO.com has also launched a new Game of Thrones Viewers Guide, delivering exclusive content such as videos, interviews, production featurettes and photography from each and every episode of the series. The guide is touted as having some pretty neat elements, including “all-new interactive maps of Westeros and Essos, with three levels of zoom, along with character bios form every season, an up-to date ‘Guide to the Houses’ and sharable episodic content.”

This marathon and the conjoining web content are no doubt hopping aboard the phenomenon known as a “dual screen experience” where television shows feature online content intended to be accessed simultaneously for an even more immersive audience experience. There’s definitely some fun to be had watching some of the best episodes while also taking a peak at more behind the scenes elements of that specific installment.

Some might find a 60-hour marathon and in-depth web content to be a bit of overkill. Is there such a thing as Game of Thrones overload? Not in Screen Rant land. Looking at the weekend weather forecast, it looks like winter is here to stay.