The night is dark and full of spoilers, fair friends of the Realm. Which is to say if you have yet to watch the season 5 finale, you might want to turn away now. Don’t say we didn’t warn ya, ya gooses.

We, like Jon Snow, know nothing of what’s to come in the upcoming sixth season of Game of Thrones. But at least we’ll—spoiler alert!—be alive to see it go down. HEY-O! Just kidding, we all know homeboy’s probably going to live, because Melisandre. Anywho!

Entertainment Weekly‘s gotten the official list of directors helming episodes this year and it’s an interesting mix of old and new faces—like the HBO series’ own House of Black and White. So who are these five brave folks set to bring us into uncharted Winds of Winter territory?

• First up is Jeremy Podeswa, returning for his second season (in season five he directed “Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken” and “Kill the Boy“). Podeswa’s prestige television game is strong, having worked on both HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and Showtime’s The Tudors before that. He’ll direct the first two episodes of season six.

• Helming the third and fourth episodes of the season will be Daniel Sackheim, a newbie to Westeros who directed six episodes of the oh-god-it’s-just-so-good The Americans on FX.

• Upping the show’s mystery ante will be Jack Bender, another newcomer. Tasked with tackling the season’s midway point (episodes 5 and 6), Bender is best known for directing 38 episodes of ABC’s Lost.

• Episodes 7 and 8 will be handled by a familiar name, Mark Mylod, whose previous two directorial offerings for the series were last season’s third and fourth episodes, “High Sparrow” and “Sons of the Harpy,” both of which tackled all that looney tunes fanaticism that permeates part of the series’ gameplan. He’s also got quite a few comedic series under his belt, so here’s hoping for a bit of levity? Maybe? Eh? No?

• Perhaps the most exciting thing of all, though, is the reveal that Miguel Sapochnik—he of last season’s epic “Hardhome” and the seventh episode, “The Gift“—will run the show for the season’s final two episodes. This, of course, leads us to speculate wildly on both the battle-heaviness that feels likely given how badass “Hardhome” was and the likelihood that winter will finally result in a big ol’ battle between the White Walkers and Wights versus the rest of the Known Realm. Please? Pretty please and also maybe?

My initial reaction to this lineup? I’m a little bummed. While this list is filled with interesting choices, there’s nary a woman director on this list (cue the groans and rage). This feels like a mistake for several reasons, not just because of all the controversy this season saw around its treatment of women. Beyond that, the roles of women in the series’ endgame has so far proven to only grow larger in this last season—I mean, hello Cersei, Dany, and Arya. So wouldn’t it be beneficial to the direction of it to have a female point of view involved?

I mean, not even a little Michelle MacLaren action? She’s not attached to Wonder Woman anymore and according to IMDB her schedule’s pretty open—though we know to never rely on that alone—so, like, why not bring her back? Or even better: invite some new, fresh lady blood (did you know there’s more than one out there doin’ it)? Gosh, imagine if they had the capacity to hire TWO female directors — but we know, we know. That’s asking far too much.

What do you think about the new director lineup? Let us hear it in the comments!

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Alicia Lutes is the Associate Editor of The Nerdist and can currently be found riding on the back of Drogon, high atop the Dothraki Sea. Find her on Twitter, though, @alicialutes.