Forget winter, the end is coming for Game of Thrones. With the show’s ending right around the corner, showrunners D.B Benioff and David Weiss took to their SXSW panel to confirm what has long been rumoured – Game of Thrones season 8 (aka the final season, for realsies) will only have six episodes.
As reported by EW, showrunner D.B Benioff pulled the trigger on announcing the shorter final run: “It’s only going to be six episodes for the final season,” with Benioff adding, “From the beginning we’ve wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It will turn out to be a 73-hour movie.”
If I’m reading between the lines, don’t go expecting any Sherlock-style bumper-length episodes. It sounds like they’re sticking to an hour, give or take, even with nearly half the episodes of a normal season.
I wouldn’t worry about a lack of action though, far from it. Kit Harington has been talking to the Huffington Post and, in case you thought Jon Snow knew nothing then, oh boy, you’re dead wrong. He’s been spilling the beans about the upcoming action-packed Game of Thrones season 7.
Harington is very, very good at hyping up the show, detailing what sounds like a set-piece packed seven episodes, stating. “I think every actor on it did more action, had more action, had more scenes.” With a possible eye on the clipped final season, Harington also said that there’s a lot more money being pumped into the coffers to make sure Game of Thrones goes out with the bang it deserves: “They spent an increasing amount of money on less episodes, so it’s gonna be much bigger in scale.”
TL;DR? Fewer episodes, more action. Oh yes.
Game of Thrones season 7 will debut June 16 on HBO in the US and June 17 on Sky Atlantic in the UK
Image: HBO
