As ‘Game of Thrones’ embarks on season five, the discussion has started about how long this epic series will run but as of right now nobody seems to know for sure when the show will end…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
As ‘Game of Thrones’ embarks on its fifth season — debuting on April 12 — questions are starting to roll in more regularly about the seven season arc that was precipitated by show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.
The two men behind ‘Game of Thrones’ coming alive on HBO have stated in several interviews that the show is likely going to run for seven seasons and that would complete the story set in the land of ice and fire in Westeros.
Needless to say because ‘Game of Thrones’ has become HBO’s most watched show of all time surpassing hits such as ‘The Sopranos’ in the last few years, executives would love to see the series continue past season seven and beyond because fans are absolutely rabid for more.
HBO president Michael Lombardo admits from a business standpoint keeping ‘Game of Thrones’ going as long as possible would be a huge boon for the network, but the last thing he’d ever do is endanger the creative vision the people responsible for the show had in terms of telling a story from beginning to middle to end.
“This is the hard part of what we do. We started this journey with David and Dan. It’s their vision. Would I love the show to go 10 years as both a fan and a network executive? Absolutely,” Lombardo said when speaking to EW.
“If (David and Dan) weren’t comfortable going beyond seven seasons, I trust them implicitly and trust that’s the right decision—as horrifying as that is to me. What I’m not going to do is have a show continue past where the creators believe where they feel they’ve finished with the story.”
Lombardo does shoot down the idea of a ‘Game of Thrones’ movie as a way to wrap up the series because that just wouldn’t be fair to subscribers who have already paid to see the show reach its apex on the network.
As far as Benioff and Weiss go, they stick by their original plan and say there’s already an end game in mind with a finite amount of episodes to get it all done.
“We want to go out on our absolute highest note. We don’t want people to finally see the end and say, “Thank god that’s over.” We know basically how many hours are left in this story. We don’t want to add 10 hours to that. It’s about finding that sweet spot so it works for us and for HBO and, most of all, it works for the audience.”
The other person to weigh in on this subject is ‘Game of Thrones’ creator George R.R. Martin, who is still the man with the vision on where this show will end whether it’s seven seasons or ten. His story is not only the basis of the show but also whether his books have been released in time or not, will be the foundation for how ‘Game of Thrones’ comes to an end.
Where Lombardo seems confident ‘Game of Thrones’ could easily run for 10 seasons and Benioff and Weiss are content with seven, Martin comes down with a much different number when talking about the future of the show.
“I don’t know. No one knows,” Martin wrote on his blog recently about how long ‘Game of Thrones’ will run. “This is Hollywood, friends. As William Goldman wrote in ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE, in Hollywood “nobody knows anything.”
“I do know that David & Dan have stated in interviews that they see the show winding up in seven seasons. People send me emails about that every time I say “I don’t know” in response to the question, as if I were somehow unaware of what D&D have said. I’m not.
“I also know that HBO wants the series to run longer than that. I have known that since the very beginning… well, actually, since the day after the second episode of season one aired, when I had lunch with one of HBO’s top execs, who told me, “We want this to run ten years.” I allowed that ten years sounded fine to me. I continue to hear similar sentiments from HBO every time I have meeting with them, be it in LA or New York. And it should be pointed out that neither ten seasons or even seven is locked in. Right now, GAME OF THRONES is guaranteed only six seasons.”
It’s true that right now HBO has only committed to ‘Game of Thrones’ through season six, but clearly from Lombardo’s words and the way this show has taken off, there’s absolutely no way the series won’t be renewed for a seventh season or beyond if that’s what it takes to tell the story to completion. Chances are a seventh season renewal will probably happen at some point while season five is still on the air.
The ultimate decision won’t be made until later but as season five starts to move forward and worlds between different factions begin to collide, an end game should start to come into focus. Martin promises he’s going to be involved with the show until the last day, but right now no one is sure when that will be.
“I expect I will have a voice in all these decisions,” Martin said. “But mine will only be one voice among many, and there are all sorts of other factors that can come into play. I will say, I am incredibly fortunate in having partners like HBO, and David Benioff and Dan Weiss. Seven seasons, ten seasons, with or without one or two feature films… in the end, all that matters is that we tell a great story, with a great end.”
Another possibility that has been raised is the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ being split into two the same way ‘The Sopranos’ ended or other shows like ‘Breaking Bad’ came to a conclusion. It’s how the show could still technically run seven seasons while getting an extended order from HBO to run for say 16 or 17 episodes in the final year instead of only 10, which is what the show normally gets per season.
For now, the only thing that matters is getting geared up for the return of ‘Game of Thrones’ on Sunday night, April 12 when the series officially starts season five. Dracarys!
