HBO has confirmed that the highly popular fantasy drama Game of Thrones will end after its eighth season.
The announcement was made by new HBO programming president Casey Bloys at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour. He was asked about the future of the show, and whether he was going to go along with showrunners’ David Benioff and Dan Weiss’ desires to end GoT with season eight.
Bloys said: “Yes, I think [the showrunners, Weiss and Benioff] have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do. If I could get them to do more, I would take 10 seasons but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is.”
The number of episodes for the final season has yet to be determined, with Bloys stating that “we’ll take as many as the (producers) will give us.” However, it has been said that the showrunners foresee the final season lasting a mere six episodes.
It has already been confirmed that season seven of the show will be made up seven episodes instead of the usual 10, and we can expect it on our screens sometime next summer. The eighth, and final, season will then be broadcast sometime in 2018.
Bloys was also asked about the possibility of a Game of Thrones spin-off. He said “We’ve talked about it. It’s something I’m not opposed to, but of course it has to make sense creatively. I’m not sure that [Benioff and Weiss] could really wrap their heads around it when they’re just about to start production [on season 7]. It’s a pretty intense production, they’re about to start production soon. I’m open to it. The guys weren’t opposed to it, but there’s no concrete plans for it at this point.”
As season seven won’t be on our screens until summer 2017, it will miss out on the 2017 Emmys deadline. Last year saw the HBO series win 12 awards. Bloys stated: “It’s always better to win more Emmys, but the main goal is to do the best show possible for our subscribers and fans.”
Game of Thrones is HBO’s longest running and most watched series. The sixth season alone was watched by an average of 25 million total viewers (across multiple plays, DVR, and non-linear viewing).
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