The upcoming season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” is about to undergo a major shake-up and fans should prepare for it.
HBO confirmed on Monday that production would have to start later than usual to better reflect chillier weather conditions in the show’s settings.
HBO’s President of Programming, Casey Bloys, released a statement saying showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have suggested this idea as they felt that the storylines of the next season called for it to start later to better serve the future episodes.
The showrunners said last month that they envision two more seasons for the show before it closes out the series, totaling to about 13 episodes.
Entertainment Weekly notes that main directors for the upcoming season will mostly be returning veterans, including Mark Mylod, Alan Taylor, and the Emmy-nominated Jeremy Podeswa. Matt Shakman also joins the team for the first time as another director.
Previous seasons of the show have started in March or April. This means that the seventh season will start in May or June so fans who are rabidly waiting for the showdown between Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys and Lena Headley’s Cersei Lannister will have to wait a little longer than usual.
Wall Street Journal notes filming for Season 7 will start later this summer to be located in Northern Ireland with other parts scheduled to be filmed in Spain and Iceland.
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 still embedded with the Wildings camp.
The Season 6 finale had the highest rating in all of the show’s history where Jon’s Snow’s parentage was revealed. The complete Season 6 DVD will come out in stores by August 1.
Last year, the show finally entered uncharted territories as the season did not take any basis from George R.R Martin’s novels although it did incorporate some elements of it into the show. The past five seasons were loosely based on his “A Song of Ice and Fire” novel series.
His sixth novel, ‘The Winds of Winter,” was supposed to be the basis of the Season 6 but it had been delayed quite too many times. Writing about the delay on his blog earlier this year, Martin said that he’d never thought that the series could possibly catch with the books.
The author adds that the show moved faster than he initially anticipated. He urged the fans to enjoy the show and enjoy the books as well.
He noted that some spoilers that viewers may encounter may not be spoilers at all because the show and the books have diverged.
It was reported that “The Winds of Winter” will come out this year, but by the looks of it, it could hit bookshelves by 2017. Fans of both series may wind up with multiple surprises if it does happen.
Another change in the upcoming season of the hit series will be entering is that the new season will consist of seven episodes, shorter than the usual 10-episode slate. If showrunners see the show lasting for 13 episodes, then Season 8 will consist of six episodes only.
Fans are now wondering how a seven-episode season could tell what will happen with all the characters in the show not to mention all the plot twists and surprises.
However, with a great production team, it’s not surprising that the show could pull off a great narration with seven episodes. It’s almost magic how the show could manage to make Sunday nights a golden hour of television with every episode.