The night is dark and full of, well, far fewer episodes of HBO’s Game of Thrones than we would selfishly like. In a new interview, co-creators and showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have confirmed what has recently been rumored to be the case: we’re only getting a total of 73 – 75 hours of A Song of Ice and Fire. And with (roughly) 60 of those hours already claimed, we’re talking 13 to 15 more episodes of the TV show, tops. Cue an entire world filled with tiny violins, playing the saddest dirge you’ve ever heard, ushering in a bittersweet dream of spring.
(Nerdist has reached out to HBO for confirmation and will update the story as more information becomes available.)
Speaking with Deadline about the epic season six finale, “The Winds of Winter,” Benioff and Weiss spoke at length about the capstone episode—and it’s all worth a read, voracious as you are, Thrones fans—but it was the last paragraph that got us especially intrigued, with the duo discussing not one more season, but two (something HBO has made no secret of wanting for years now, but wasn’t 100% part of the season-per-book plan that Benioff and Weiss put forth at the start).
“It’s two more seasons we’re talking about,” explained Benioff. “From pretty close to the beginning, we talked about doing this in 70-75 hours, and that’s what we’ll end up with. Call it 73 for now.”
And while that make some Thrones fans deeply upset, as their hope for a never-ending Westerosi universe are shattered, it ultimately makes a lot of sense. “We’ve known the end for quite some time and we’re hurtling towards it. Those last images from the show that aired last night 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. Some of the pieces have been removed from the board and we are heading toward the end game.”
He also added, astutely, that this has never been about not ending: “It’s not supposed to be an ongoing show, where every season it’s trying to figure out new story lines. We wanted it to be one giant story, without padding it out to add an extra 10Â hours, or because people are still watching it. We wanted to something where, if people watched it end to end, it would make sense as one continuous story.”
So there you have it, folks:Â Game of Thrones is coming to an end after season eight. What do you think of the news? Happy to see it end with dignity and in the way the showrunners intended (like we are)? Let us know in the comments below.
And while we’re here, here’s the 12 things you may have missed in “The Winds of Winter”:
Images: HBO
Alicia Lutes is the Managing Editor, creator/co-host of Fangirling, and resident Khaleesi of House Nerdist. Find her on Twitter but only if you really want to because like, I’m not your boss.
