Television & Film

HBO Confirms Shorter Season and Later Premiere for GAME OF THRONES

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Well, Game of Thrones fans, we have good news and bad news.

The good news is that season seven of HBO’s epic fantasy has been officially slated for filming and airing. The bad news is that the season won’t begin filming till late Summer 2016, according to HBO (via Variety). And that means you won’t be feasting your eyeballs on the King in the North and the Dragon-Riding Queen/Conqueror until Summer 2017, well after the traditional April Thrones premiere date.

Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, had this to say: “Now that winter has arrived on Game of Thrones, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual, when the weather is changing.” The weather in question is mainly that of Northern Ireland, with other locations in Spain and Iceland.

To make matters worse, HBO also confirmed that season seven will have only seven episodes, instead of the ten we received in previous seasons. While this no doubt deals a crushing blow to the roughly 90% of the Earth’s population that follows the show, it is consistent with Benioff and Weiss’ original plans.

We are seriously considering hiring Bella Ramsey to glare at the producers until they agreed to 10 ep seasons. It would probably work. (Bella Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont, queen of the stink eye.)
We are seriously considering hiring Bella Ramsey to glare at the producers until they agree to 10 ep seasons. You have to admit, it would probably work. (Bella Ramsey as Lyanna Mormont, Queen of the Stink Eye.) [Courtesy HBO.]
In a June interview with Deadline Hollywood, Benioff said, “It’s two more seasons we’re talking about. From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now …. As Dan [Weiss] said, we’ve known the end for quite some time and we’re hurtling towards it …. We wanted it to be one giant story, without padding it out to add an extra 10 hours, or because people are still watching it.”

That means a season seven with seven episodes and a final season with six to eight, according to Variety. So if you’ve got big dreams for the Best Game of Thrones Series Finale Party Ever (to Include Dragons and Fountains of Wine), then we wouldn’t recommend waiting too long to start planning.

Full episodes of Game of Thrones are currently available via HBOGo. Visit the official Game of Thrones website for more info and lots of other content.

Avoid delayed-season-premiere-induced death! Check out our previous Thrones coverage and excellently home-brewed recaps. And listen into the women of SciFi4Me discuss the women of Thrones in the latest SciFi4Chicks podcast.

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