With filming now complete on the eighth season of Game of Thrones, the countdown begins to the final six episodes of the acclaimed HBO fantasy series, which are set to land on the cable network in the first half of 2019.
Speaking to Variety, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin has revealed that the decision to end the series at eight seasons lay solely with showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and that Martin would have liked to see it continue for several years yet.
“We could’ve gone 11, 12, 13 seasons,” said Martin. “David and Dan have been saying for like five seasons that seven seasons is all they would go. We got them to go to eight but not any more than that. There was a period like five years ago when they were saying seven seasons and I was saying 10 seasons and they won, they’re the ones actually working on it. I know all of the actors, as great as they are, all the actors are anxious to get on and play other roles. They don’t want to spend their entire lives playing one role and that’s fine, that’s great, we had such an amazing cast.”
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HBO was also keen to extend the life of its flagship series – so much so that several spinoff series are in the works, the first of which – tentatively titled The Long Night – has received a pilot order from the network and will take place thousands of years in the past, chronicling the world’s descent from the golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour.
