The director list for the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ is short but packed with star power…
The final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ hasn’t kicked off production just yet but the directors who will head up the last six episodes have now been announced.
HBO has confirmed that ‘Game of Thrones’ show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss will handle directing duties on the series finale, which will bring the most watched show in network history to a close.
In addition to Benioff and Weiss directing the finale, Miguel Sapochnik and David Nutter are the other two directors who will handle the last handful of episodes for ‘Game of Thrones’.
Now typically directors working on ‘Game of Thrones’ will handle two episodes per season but rumors are swirling that Sapochnik may end up handling three in the final season with Nutter taking a pair of episodes before Benioff and Weiss handle the finale.
Sapochnik is a name that should be very familiar to ‘Game of Thrones’ viewers after he’s directed some of the most epic episodes in the history of the series. Sapochnik directed the season 5 episode ‘Hardhome’, which featured Jon Snow’s journey north of the Wall where he encountered the Night King and his army for the first time.
Sapochnik returned for season 6 where he directed ‘The Battle of the Bastards’ as well as the season finale ‘The Winds of Winter’. Sapochnik earned an Emmy award for best director for ‘The Battle of the Bastards’, which featured the showdown between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton. Sapochnik didn’t direct any ‘Game of Thrones’ episodes during season 7 but now he will return to help close out the series in season 8.
Meanwhile, David Nutter has been a stalwart with ‘Game of Thrones’ for several seasons with his most famous episode taking place during season 3 with ‘The Rains of Castamere’, which was the infamous ‘Red Wedding’ episode. He also directed the season 5 finale in which Jon Snow is betrayed by his brothers in the Night’s Watch.
While the directors for the upcoming season have been confirmed, there’s no word on what order Sapochnik and Nutter will handle with those five episodes. The only thing we know for certain is Benioff and Weiss are directing the finale.
One other interesting note — the budget in the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ is expected to reach $15 million per episode. While ‘Game of Thrones’ has always been one of the most expensive series on television to produce, HBO is pulling out all the stops with this final season with rumors circulating that each episode may run longer than the standard 60 minute timeframe.
Stay tuned for more information on the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ as it becomes available!
