For those ‘Game of Thrones’ fan anxious awaiting the return of the show this summer, and sad to see the whole thing starting to come to an end, there is some good news. Although we had been told that there were only 13 episodes left in the vaunted series, now it seems there might be a few more episodes left than expected.
When addressing the question of why Season 8 had not been “officially” picked up, HBO’s programming president Casey Bloys laughed at the very thought, stating, “If you’re afraid we’re not going to do an eighth season, I assure you we’re going to.” Seems the whole thing is held up by how many episodes that season is going to consist of, despite the fact that we had previous heard that Season 8 would only be 6 episodes. Bloys went on to say:
“The only thing we’re working out is how many episodes they [David Benioff and D.B Weiss] want to do…They’re still figuring out the shape of the season, what they want to do. 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.”
Which means that Season 8 might be more than the 6 episodes originally discussed, which would be amazing, meaning much more content for all of us. Bloys also spoke on all the rumors about a possible spin-off of ‘Game of Thrones’ and whether it would be a sequel or prequel to the hit series:
“It’s such a big property we would be foolish not to explore it, but it’s a pretty high bar. We’ll take some shots at it. I’m not going to do it just to do it. It has to feel very special. I would rather have no sequel and leave it as-is then have something we rushed out…A prequel feels like it has less pressure on it [than a spin-off]. [Author George R.R. Martin’s history of Westeros] gives you areas in which to say to a writer, ‘If you were going to do this, then go flesh it out,’ and we’ll see what comes back. But I don’t feel any pressure that we have to have something.”
When speaking about the main series and the reasoning behind the shortened final seasons, series show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had the following to say last April:
“I think we’re down to our final 13 episodes. We’re heading into the final lap….[It’s] not just [about] trying not to outstay [our] welcome,” adding, “We’re trying to tell one cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end… We’ve known the end for quite some time and we’re hurtling towards it. Those last images from [the Season 6 finale] showed that. Daenerys is finally coming back to Westeros, Jon Snow is king of the North, and Cersei is sitting on the Iron Throne. And we know the Night King is up there, waiting for all of them. The pieces are on the board now… and we are heading toward the endgame.”
Are you excited at the prospect of more episodes of Season 8? Would you tune in to watch a spin-off of ‘Game of Thrones’ or do you think it should end with the main series? Share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below!
Source: EW
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
