It’s been strongly implied for a while now, but at the ongoing Television Critics Association Summer Tour, HBO has now set Game of Thrones’ climax in stone; The show will officially end after its eighth season, which is likely going to be aired in 2018. HBO also re-iterated that the final seventh and eighth seasons of their epic fantasy drama will also be shortened from the show’s previous ten-episode season format, though Season Eight’s episode count hasn’t yet been decided. Next year’s seventh season, which will air a bit later than usual during Summer 2017, will span seven episodes.
Showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are the ones insisting that Game of Thrones come to an end after Season Eight, according to new HBO President of Programming, Casey Bloys. Bloys stated during the TCA Summer Tour that he would order ten more seasons of the show if he had his way, but he does want to respect the wishes of Benioff and Weiss as well, who previously went on record to claim that they are insistent that Game of Thrones not overstay its welcome on the airwaves. Bloys also addressed rumours of a Game of Thrones spin-off, saying that he and the network are open to one, and some ideas have been kicked around, but HBO doesn’t have anything official to announce at this time.
Game of Thrones concluded its most recent sixth season this past June, which continued to receive tons of critical and audience acclaim, as well as scads of Emmy nominations. We also gave Season Six of Game of Thrones an overall 88% score in our cumulative review, praising the season’s many violent highlights and character turns, as well as its still-fantastic world-building and lore, even if we did note a slight dip in quality just after the season’s middle portion.
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