After a low-key season five Game of Thrones came back stronger than ever for one hell of a season six that rocked out its killer send-off on Sunday. With that finale being heralded as one of the best-ever episodes of television, setting TONS of stuff into motion, attentions are turning to the future. We know two more seasons are planned. It's been rumored for some time that they'll be shorter than the usual ten episodes, and the showrunners have now confirmed it.
"It’s two more seasons we’re talking about," David Benioff tells Deadline. "From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now."
That's only 13 more episodes. TOTAL. But don't despair. Benioff goes on to say that this is to prevent 'filler' episodes just for the sake of it.
"The thing that has excited us from the beginning, back to the way we pitched it to HBO is, it’s not supposed to be an ongoing show, where every season it’s trying to figure out new story lines. We wanted it to be one giant story, without padding it out to add an extra 10 hours, or because people are still watching it. We wanted to something where, if people watched it end to end, it would make sense as one continuous story. We’re definitely heading into the end game now."
That end game was heavily teased during the parting shots of season six. Make no mistake: we're headed toward a mammoth showdown in Westeros. Daenerys and her allies are sailing toward a King's Landing that has Cersei (!) on the Iron Throne, while Jon seems locked in tight as King of the North. Even if we're getting fewer episodes for the show's final story beats, it sounds like they're going to be crammed with solid, fast-paced content as showcased throughout season six. Be excited.
Images: HBO
