GAME THEORIES

For years, we bemoaned the fact that “Game of Thrones” didn’t have a weekly companion “after show,” like “The Walking Dead” has with “Talking Dead.” No other TV drama is more in need of thoughtful postgame analysis. Now there is one. “After the Thrones,” hosted by Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan, will recap the latest episode by breaking down the who, what, when and where of the storyline, while exploring the complicated politics and history of “Thrones” and offering theories about future episodes. And those 13 will probably be broken up into two seasons.

Though Martin has said that there are “a whole world of stories waiting to be told,” HBO has already ruled out prequels and spin-offs.

The immediate question is: Can the show runners keep “Game of Thrones” going in a satisfying way even as they hit uncharted territory? This is the first season that fans who have also read the books won’t know what is going to happen. Still, even if you knew the bloody outcome of “Red Wedding,” seeing the brutal deaths of several key characters was quite shocking. And shock is what”Game of Thrones” has excelled at.

So far, though, despite heightened interest from the show’s fans, no one has ferreted out any firm direction for the new season. Even the cast is kept in the dark, since the series is shot in five countries — Croatia, Ireland, Spain, Canada, Iceland — and actors only get access to their parts of the script.

There have been more than 2,000 characters in Martin’s series, with more than 30 characters in each episode, and this season at least nine new ones are coming, including Ian McShane as a warrior-priest.

So that leaves plenty of room to kill a few off, and the rumor mill has a number of characters meeting their ends.

Students at the Technical University of Munich — apparently instead of working on their studies — even came up with a computer analysis of who might die.

Last season, about a dozen characters were killed off — and nobody dies peacefully on “Game of Thrones.”

So calculate your old odds.

While we refuse to believe Daenerys won’t make it, it’s hard to argue with the rest. But what about those most likely to survive? As for who has the best shot at survival, survey says:

Least likely to die

Sansa Stark Jon Snow Cersei Lannister Mace Tyrell Roose Bolton

So Sansa and her halfbrother Jon Snow are looking safe. Does this compute with what fans really think? Hard to say, but now that this data is out there we worry that author George R.R. Martin will read it ... and decide to subvert it.