This summer Game of Thrones will return for its seventh and penultimate season – consisting of just seven episodes – before showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff wrap things up with an eighth season of six episodes.
However, as yet, HBO is yet to officially renew the epic fantasy series for season eight – a decision that the cable network’s programming president Casey Bloys says is down to the fact that the actual episode count is yet to be determined.
“The only thing we’re working out is how many episodes they want to do,” Bloys tells TV Line. “They’re still figuring it out because I think they’re trying to get a shape of the season. They always do what they think [will yield] the best version of the show. It’s all about how many they’re comfortable [with]. But I’ll always take more. If you’re afraid we’re not going to do an eighth season, I assure you we’re going to.”
Regardless of the episode count, one thing that is certain is that we’re approaching the end of Game of Thrones. However, there’s been plenty of talk about HBO extending its stay in Westeros with a spinoff series, and Bloys has told Variety that they’d be “foolish” not to consider it.
“All I can say is that we’re exploring it. We don’t have any scripts, we’re not even close to saying ‘Oh let’s do this.’ But it’s a big enough property that we would be foolish not to explore it. It’s a really rich world. We’d be foolish not to look at it.”
Game of Thrones returns to HBO for its seventh season this summer.
Originally published January 16, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
