Time for a confession that should thoroughly alienate a good portion of our readership: I don’t like The Lord of the Rings . Okay, let’s be fair: I don’t really know The Lord of the Rings. I never read the books, and only saw the first movie— and that was the original theatrical cut, which was only, what, six hours long? Point is, that was enough. Not my cup of tea. So I’m as surprised as anyone to be genuinely excited by the new trailer for HBO’s upcoming medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones, based on a series of books by George R.R. Martin called A Song of Ice and Fire , which (no surprise) I haven’t read. But the show’s pedigree is top-notch: it is co-created by David Benioff, who wrote the novel and screenplay of one of our favorite underrated dramas, Spike Lee’s 25th Hour , and the writing staff includes Jane Espenson, five-year vet of Buffy the Vampire Slayer . It’s got a terrific cast as well — Red Riding vets Mark Addy and Sean Bean (the latter of whom appeared in the aforementioned Lord of the Rings pictures), the great Peter Dinklage from The Station Agent , and Aidan Gillen, aka The Wire ’s Tommy Carcetti. Being an HBO drama, it will also apparently have naked people in it. At any rate, check out the trailer after the jump, and let us know what you think in the comments.