Game of Thrones season 8: HBO boss confirms eighth season will be show's last

But Benioff and Weiss have been in early talks about a spin-off series

Tim Walker
Los Angeles
Sunday 31 July 2016 11:13 EDT
Comments
Production on Game of Thrones season seven has been delayed due to insufficiently wintry conditions
Production on Game of Thrones season seven has been delayed due to insufficiently wintry conditions ((Pic: HBO))

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The eighth season of Game of Thrones will definitely be its last, an HBO executive has confirmed. Casey Bloys, the premium cable network’s new president of programming, confirmed to journalists at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour in Los Angeles on Saturday that the world’s favourite tits-and-dragons-themed TV fantasy drama would come to an end after two more seasons.

GoT Showrunners DB Weiss and David Benioff “have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do,” Bloys said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “If I could get them to do more, I would take 10 seasons, but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is.”

The show was recently renewed for a seventh season of just seven episodes. Its producers have said previously that they imagine a total of 75 episodes, of which the first six seasons comprised 60. That would leave eight more episodes for the eighth and final season, though Benioff and Weiss have also talked about season eight consisting of a mere six episodes.

With Winter having come to Westeros, production has been delayed until the weather back in the real world is sufficiently frosty, meaning the seventh season won’t reach screens until next summer. Previous seasons have premiered in the Spring.

There have also been early conversations about the prospect of a spin-off series, Bloys said. “It’s not something I'm opposed to but it has to make sense creatively,” he explained. “I’m not sure the guys can wrap their heads around it when they are about to start production. We're open to it; the guys arent opposed to it but there's no concrete plans right now.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in