With only ten episodes every year, being a Game of Thrones fan means doing a lot of waiting. Thankfully, we're now just a little over a month away from the show's season six premiere, and according to showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss our patience will be rewarded with the best Game of Thrones season yet.
The enthusiastic statement comes courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, who asked the showrunning duo which of the season's episodes was the most exciting. "The whole season", replied Benioff. "Dan and I talk about this a lot. This is not us trying to hype it. Usually there’s an episode or two we’re kind of nervous about, that didn’t turn out as well as we hoped. This season there is not a weak episode."
"We thought at the script stage it might be our strongest season", Benioff continued. "Then the episodes came in better than we hoped. We’re always reluctant to say it’s ‘the best season yet’ because so much of that is in the eyes of the beholder. And Dan and I are so close to it that it’s impossible to be unbiased. But that’s my sense – watching them all together now, this is the best one we’ve done. It’s also the one I’m proudest of, because it was the hardest."
When you consider that season 6 is the first to be made without a George R.R. Martin book to refer to, Benioff's statement becomes even more impressive. When Game of Thrones is at its best there is nothing on TV that can match it, but past seasons have been mired by inconsistency. I'll take Benioff's quote with a grain of salt for now, but I'm excited to find out if the upcoming season is as good as he promises. The wait continues...
Game of Thrones season 6 premieres on HBO on April 24, 2016 in the US, and on Sky Atlantic a day later in the UK.
Images: HBO