HBO has confirmed that their hit show “Game of Thrones” will end by its 8th season. HBO Programming Chief Casey Bloys made the announcement at the Television Critics Association’s conference.
Since the Season 6 finale, rumors were already rife that the show was already nearing its end. Now fans finally know that their visits to Westeros will come to a close by 2018.
The network earlier announced that the show’s upcoming season will be made up of seven episodes only instead of the usual 10 and will debut later than previous seasons.
The delay was because the storylines of the upcoming season will require a heavy amount of winter locations.
Mirror UK reports that Season 7 will be filmed across Northern Ireland as well as some parts of Spain and Iceland. HBO released a statement last month stating that the fantasy drama will return months later than usual.
With the production delay of Season 7, the network executive confirmed that the show will not be eligible for the Emmys next year.
Bloys says that missing the Emmy nominations for next year was a tough thing to digest, but they wouldn’t change it in order to deliver a great season to the viewers.
Speaking to UFC Unfiltered podcast, showrunners said that they are gearing up to shoot spectacular scenes to make it more authentic.
Hence, the need to wait for the winter season to accommodate filming. This is the main reason why Season 7 will take longer to reach small screens again.
Variety notes that it has been a couple of years since the production team used Iceland for significant shooting, having primarily used the location for the North of the Wall scenes when Kit Harrington’s Jon Snow was embedded with the Wildings camp.
They explained that the upcoming weather forecast told by Sansa to Jon Snow at Winterfell will be a significant and integral part of the next season.
HBO has not yet given an official air date but rumors say that the show could start late May until late June.
Speaking in Beverly Hills California over the weekend, Bloys said that the number of episodes for Season 8 has yet to be determined.
Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss has openly stated that they see the show lasting 13 more episodes after the Season 6 finale. Season 7 already will contain seven episodes which mean, if it will go according to the showrunners’ plan, the remaining six episodes will comprise the final season.
On the rumors of a spinoff, Bloys said that they are not ruling out a possibility. He adds that the producers aren’t opposed to it, but there are no concrete plans right now. The producers are focused on Season 7, in which filming has already commenced.
Bloys went on saying that he is also as sad as fans are with the news, Benioff and Weiss have a specific number of seasons in mind since they crafted the show.
He says that if it was solely up to him, the show would take more than 10 seasons, but HBO takes the showrunners’ lead on what they think they can do to show to make it the best version of the series.
“Game of Thrones’’ is one of television’s most watched shows with 25 million total viewers this year across all platforms, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Last year, the series won a record of 12 Emmy Awards. This year, it also made another record as the series has picked up 23 nominations for the Emmy Awards to be held this September.
The Season 6 finale had the highest rating in all of the show’s history where Jon’s Snow’s parentage was revealed. Season 7 is expected to dig in deeper into Jon Snow’s real lineage as well as the much-awaited reunion of the Stark siblings.