There’s a chance the final six episodes of ‘Game of Thrones’ won’t debut until 2019…
As it stands there are only 13 episodes remaining of ‘Game of Thrones’ until the hugely popular series comes to an end.
‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 is set to debut on Sunday night July 16 on HBO with seven episodes making up the penultimate season of the show originally championed by show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.
Following the conclusion on the production for season 7, Benioff and Weiss started preliminary work on the eighth and final season of ‘Game of Thrones’, which will close out with six episodes in total.
While the most recent filming scheduled for ‘Game of Thrones’ pushed the show back to a summer launch date versus a typical spring debut, it appears the final season could be delayed even longer as the creators behind the series put everything into those last six episodes to ensure the show ends on a high note.
“They have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. We’ll have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing,” HBO programming president Casey Bloys told EW on Friday.
Bloys confirmed that Benioff and Weiss are expected to work on the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ for approximately a year and a half, which means the show could potentially get pushed into 2019. The latest season of ‘Game of Thrones’ faced a delayed shooting schedule because winter arrived in Westeros, which meant locations required a colder climate with snow in many of them.
‘Game of Thrones’ has typically started shooting in the summer but for season 7 the production was pushed until the end of summer into the early fall. Considering the final season will likely follow the same format, ‘Game of Thrones’ season 8 could potentially not kick off production until the latter part of 2017, which means filming may not wrap up until well into 2018 — and that’s all depending on when Benioff and Weiss finish writing the season.
In other words, the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ could be delayed quite a bit longer than the expected debut date in the summer of 2018.
Bloys promises it will be worth the wait because what unfolds during ‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 is nothing short of spectacular and he expects the same thing for the final six episodes in season 8.
“One of the hallmarks of the show has been how cinematic it is,” Bloys teased. “The show has proven that TV is every bit as impressive and in many cases more so, than film. What they’re doing is monumental. When you see these battles in season 7, and what I imagine season 8 will be, it’s a big, big show. We’ve done a lot of great shows, but this one combines the complex characters we love with a huge cinematic scope.
“I think this is the first show to prove that can be done — and we’re the first people to pay for it.”
‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 will debut on HBO on Sunday, July 16 at 9pm ET.
