HBO has just courted the ire of the millions of fans of the very popular “Game of Thrones” TV series when reports started coming out that the premiere of the sixth season of the show will most likely be pushed back from its supposed early April release to May next year.
Over the past five seasons, “Game of Thrones” has either premiered in March or in April. This year, Season 5 premiered on HBO on April 12.
It seems unlikely that “Game of Thrones” Season 6 will have an April premiere date next year because of some programming adjustments on HBO.
Apparently, HBO has two TV series premiering in February next year for its Sunday night programming. The two shows are “Vinyl” which will roll out on February 14 to be followed by “Girls and Togetherness” that will premiere a week later, details Vulture.
The two new series completes HBO Sunday night programming with “Show Me a Hero.” The three shows would finish out their seasons all at the same time on April 24. This means that “Game of Thrones” cannot premiere on HBO anytime from April 24 or earlier because its usual time slot is well occupied on those dates.
By logical deduction, the earliest that “Game of Thrones” Season 6 could air therefore is the next Sunday after April 24 which falls on May 1.
While HBO has not officially announced yet that the premiere date of Season 6 of “Games of Thrones” will be pushed back by nearly a month, the network simply does not want to add insult to the injury by making a formal announcement about it.
Unless HBO does some creative adjustment to its Sunday night programming starting early next year, the push back in the premiere date of “Game of Thrones” Season 6 is very likely at this point in time.
Other possible reasons
According to Vanity Fair, there are a number of other reasons why HBO decided to tinker with its Sunday night schedule.
However, the most popular among the speculated reasons is the fact that critically-acclaimed author George R.R. Martin wants to buy some more time prior to the release of his sixth book, “The Winds of Winter.”
It has been reported that the sixth book of Martin’s fantasy novel series “A Song of Ice and Fire” will be released anytime from October this year to March next year, which is intentional in order for the book not to provide too many spoilers for Season 6 of “Game of Thrones.”
Recent reports now indicate that a 2015 release of “The Winds of Winter” is very unlikely so the possibility of the book being launched is now trimmed down to dates from January 1 to early April next year.
Reports are also rife that the seventh and final book of the series titled “A Dream of Spring” will not come out before the “Game of Thrones” wraps up on HBO so series creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff will have the privilege of being the first to conclude “A Song of Ice and Fire” saga ahead of Martin’s final masterpiece.
Coming back from the dead
Meanwhile, at least three previously dead characters of “Game of Thrones” will reportedly return to Season 6 as the actors, who played the roles in the past seasons were all spotted filming on the sets.
One thing is sure, though, they will not be coming back from the dead as white walkers, which is one of the two main fantasy elements of “Game of Thrones,” with the other being the dragons.
The first to have been recently spotted filming in the Spain set is Sean Bean, who every fan of “Game of Thrones” knows as Ned Stark. The actor was caught on amateur camera by an obsessed “Game of Thrones” UK fan filming a scene outside the Castillo de Zafar in Campillo on a battle scene.
There have been previous reports that 13-year-old English actor Sebastian Croft was cast as a young version of Ned Stark in a flashback.
It is likely that Ned Stark doing a battle scene in Spain is also a flashback and may have something to do with the story about the roots of Jon Snow and his mother, who according to speculations may actually be a Targaryen.