New HBO programming president Casey Bloys met the press Saturday at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour and the first question he fielded was about the future of the HBO fantasy drama. The executive also confirmed that yes, the plan is for the yet-to-be announced eighth season of the adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s fantasy drama to be its last.
“Yes, I think [the showrunners, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff] have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do,” Bloys said. “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 official remaining episode count has not been released yet but if our math serves us correctly the network was on record saying they would like a total of 75 episodes when the series comes to an end. After season six the episode count was at 60. Season seven will be a shorter season with only 7 episodes which leaves season eight to only have 8 episodes before the series finale. However a spinoff has been the source of wide speculation and appears to still be something HBO is pursuing.
“We’ve talked about it,” he said. “It’s not something I’m opposed to but it has to make sense creatively. 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 aren’t opposed to it but there’s no concrete plans right now.”
We also learned a couple weeks ago that the season seven premiere will be delayed from the typical March / April release until Summer of 2017. Which means we have to wait an entire year for Winter to come, and it’s coming in the Fall.
