‘Game of Thrones’ will undoubtedly return for an 8th and final season on HBO but why hasn’t the show been renewed yet?
It’s a foregone conclusion that ‘Game of Thrones’ will return for an 8th and final season in 2018 but HBO still hasn’t offered up an official renewal for the show and now we know why.
‘Game of Thrones’ show runners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have hinted that the final two seasons of the show will span 13 episodes. Season 7 has already been slated for seven episodes, which would mean season 8 — the final season — would go for six episodes.
But according to HBO programming president Casey Bloys that final number of episodes hasn’t yet been determined so that’s why the network hasn’t officially renewed the show until Benioff and Weiss make a final decision on how much ‘Game of Thrones’ is actually left.
“They’re still figuring out the shape of the season, what they want to do,” Bloys said. “I’ll take as many as they want to do. If they give me eight, I’ll want 10. But it’s really up to them. They’ll let me know.”
Bloys also hinted at the continued rumors that HBO would eventually develop some sort of ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel based on the previous material available from author George R.R. Martin.
‘Game of Thrones’ is by far the most watched series in HBO history so it stands to reason why the network would want to stay in business with the popular show and with so much more material already available, a prequel would seem like the perfect way to continue telling the history of Westeros while sticking with Martin’s source material.
“It’s such a big property we would be foolish not to explore it, but it’s a pretty high bar,” Bloys said. “We’ll take some shots at it. I’m not going to do it just to do it. It has feel very special.
“I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out.”
For now, ‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 will be wrapping up production in February before the show debuts this summer on HBO. Because of the later shooting schedule for season 7 due to winter finally arriving in Westeros, ‘Game of Thrones’ won’t debut until June or July most likely with seven episodes in the penultimate season of the show.
