We weren’t thrilled when we learned that Game of Thrones‘ upcoming seventh season would only have seven episodes instead of 10. However, that was slightly mitigated when we found out they would have much longer runtimes than past years, including the two longest episodes in show history. Still, that didn’t help make us feel better about the even shorter, six-episode final season.

But this report from Amazon journalist David Chen does. According to Chen, Thrones sound designer Paula Fairfield said the eighth and final season could have feature-length episodes, and that could point to a huge, terrifying development for the Seven Kingdoms.

https://twitter.com/davechensky/status/881168802649690113

We have to point out that this is just one person from the show saying what they are “considering.” This is far, far, far from a guarantee at this point. At the very least though, the idea that they are even discussing such a possibility points to an incredible ending, even if they don’t end up going through with it.

Feature-length (a term that, generally speaking, translates to a 90-plus-minute runtime) episodes could indicate huge battles, of which the coming Great War with the White Walkers will surely have. We know from the season seven trailers that we’re getting some giant fights soon, likely the biggest yet to hit Game of Thrones. That might be the biggest reason this coming penultimate season will have a longer than normal run time, and the two longest single episodes yet (the last two of the season).

But where exactly is season seven ending and season eight beginning?

Winter is here, officially arriving at the end of season six. All of the marketing for season seven has promoted the arrival of the Great War too. It’s hard to imagine that, by the end of season seven, that ultimate fight will not have at least begun. So even if the show uses all of this year to put the final players in place to fight it, we would guess by the beginning of season eight, whatever major event will have taken place to start the White Walkers invasion (like The Wall coming down maybe), will have occurred.

Which means the final season may actually take form as a six-part war. After Hardhome, Jon did call the White Walker army the largest in the world, and it only gets bigger every time it strikes down an opponent. It’s not going to be quick. But it’s hard to imagine a war of that magnitude and length would be waged only at or near the Wall. Does anyone think a war with blue-eyed ice demons and dragons is going to be fought in trenches?

In fact, if every episode needs to be movie-length, that doesn’t feel like it would be a static setting near the Wall. Instead, we may see major battles at different locales. That would mean a White Walker army marching through the Seven Kingdoms.

Sort of like Daenery’s visions in the House of the Undying pointed to way back in season two.

If you don’t remember, she entered the mysterious structure in Qarth after her dragons were taken, and there she walked into a snow-covered Throne Room in King’s Landing, where the roof had been destroyed. She then walked out a door that turned out to be the gate at Castle Black into a blinding snow storm north of the Wall. Her visions seemed to directly tie King’s Landing and the Iron Throne (and therefore the “game of thrones” the living have been playing) to winter and the coming Long Night.

Did Daenerys see where the White Walkers are heading and the damage they will do? Or was that a warning of what would happen if they weren’t stopped? Whatever it means, Game of Thrones will surely go out with a bang worthy of its story and place in television history. And if it goes out with six of them, it could mean the biggest, most terrifying invasion anyone has ever seen. Winter is coming and with it comes the Long Night. And it could be coming all the way to King’s Landing.

But what do you think? Could feature-length episodes in the show’s final season mean? Tell us your best guesses in the comments below.

Images: HBO