There’s been some back and forth the last couple of days on the internet about when exactly ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 8 is going to premiere, with a new rumor beginning that the premiere date was going to be later than fans had originally thought, especially since hope had been kindled that the series might premiere in April of 2019. But after an interview with a member of the VFX team which made it seem like the show would not be eligible for the 2019 Emmy’s, speculation began that perhaps the show would not actually start until May or June of 2019.
Here are the quotes that started the rumors: According to a recent interview with Huffington Post, ‘Game of Thrones’ visual effects supervisor Joe Bauer stated:
“In two years we’ll be eligible for the Season 8 work, which we’re just beginning now. We’re going to be toiling away on Season 8 until May of 2019, so it’s eight or nine months away. But the prequel is starting to shoot in February, at least the pilot. So we’ll still have quite a lot to do on Season 8 when they’re beginning…So much of it comes down to timing and all that stuff. The situation changes every week. I know I’m not doing anything else but ‘Thrones’ until May of next year.”
The confusion came down to the rules from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, which the Huffington Post quoted as saying:
“If an ongoing series has enough episodes (six or more) in the current eligibility year to qualify as a series, but has one or more episodes, including the season/series finale, airing after May 31, those ‘hanging episodes’ that are part of the season’s contiguous rollout on the same distribution platform will join the six or more eligible episodes of the series, as long as the hanging episodes air prior to the first-round voting deadline.”
So Bauer stating “in 2 years” started all the trouble, but luckily, following all the internet rumors and worries, a rep from HBO told Huffington post that despite all the rumors, the show will indeed be premiering in “the first half of 2019” though they declined to give an exact date, but they seemed to be assuring everyone that the original schedule will still hold, with other news outlets like EW stating that Season 8 will indeed be eligible for the 2019 Emmy’s.
When asked about the topic about the ending of the series, Bauer shared his own thoughts on how the story closed, and what the fans are going to think:
“I thought it was really brave. I thought it’d be interesting to see. It’s very true to what ‘Thrones’ is, and knowing how it ends, I don’t actually see how it could end any other way. I think the whole series has aimed toward this. I obviously can’t say what it is. I think there will be divisions because people have grown to identify and like and hate various characters, so everybody has their version of how they want it to end based on those things, but looking at it objectively, I think the way it ends is the way it must end, so I’m just going to leave it at that.”
Quite the roller coaster ride thanks to Mr. Bauer’s words, but at least we are hammering away at HBO and starting to pry information from them about that release date, and his thoughts on the ending itself are very encouraging indeed.
Here’s hoping we get both an official premiere date a trailer for the new season soon!
Source: Huffington Post
