29th August 2017 - Casey Bloys Discusses Filming for Season 8
Production on the fantasy drama's eighth season is slated to begin in October and run as late as August 2018, sources say. That could push the return of the abbreviated six-episode final run into 2019 with a more than 16-month gap between seasons. (HBO would neither confirm nor deny the rumors.)
"Our production people are trying to figure out a timeline for the shoot and how much time the special effects take," HBO programming president Casey Bloys tells The Hollywood Reporter. "The shooting is complicated enough — on different continents, with all the technical aspects — and the special effects are a whole other production period that we're trying to figure out. That is a big factor in all of this."
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have all six episodes mapped out and are working in tandem with the production team to determine a schedule that makes sense for the sweeping fantasy drama and its sprawling cast. The longer wait for season eight comes after the premium cable network pushed back the start of season seven — from its typical spring debut to mid-July — as the production needed to shoot in a colder climate, including for scenes that take place beyond the wall.
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2nd July 2017 - Final Season May Consist of Feature-Length Episodes
At this weekend’s Con of Thrones, sound designer Paula Fairfield told the crowd that the Powers that Be might make all six episodes of Season 8 feature-length.
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Among the biggest is that episodes could be getting much longer as the show heads to its conclusion. While the number of episodes has shrunk, with 7 slated for the upcoming season and just six for the yet-to-be-produced final batch, Season 8, the length will likely move toward feature range of 80-plus minutes next season, according to sound designed Paula Fairfield. She said Season 7 episodes will be their customary hour-long duration, but the finale of Season 7 clocks in at 82 minutes. In Season 8, the episode could be in the 80-plus-minute range of a feature film, as series like Sherlock and Black Mirror have done.
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2nd June 2017 - Final Season Might Not Air Until 2019
Thanks to Emily for the heads up.
I would recommend reading the entire article via EW.
Exclusive: #GameofThrones' final season might not conclude until 2019: https://t.co/JRnNyBL7DF #GoTS7 pic.twitter.com/kBlH0cX8Pq
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) June 2, 2017
HBO is offering some revelatory new details concerning the final seasons of Game of Thrones and its plan to find a prequel successor. Entertainment Weekly spoke to programming president Casey Bloys about his strategy to usher the worldwide pop culture phenomenon to an epic and satisfying conclusion and possibly launch new adventures in Westeros as well. Below the entertainment executive discusses the prequels, the level of involvement of author George R.R. Martin and Emmy-winning showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, and tempers expectations for how long all this will take — the Game of Thrones final season and any prequel series (there are now five in development) might not air as soon as fans think.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Can you talk about your strategy to develop multiple Thrones prequels at once? It’s a unique approach, particularly for a network that’s never made a spinoff or prequel series before.
CASEY BLOYS: You couldn’t do this with a lot of shows. In talking with the drama group here, and the nice thing is George has created an entire universe. The fact that there’s enough material to even contemplate making different prequels is crazy when you think about it. George has all these histories he’s thought about and that’s one reason why the books are so good.
The other reason, frankly, as I said, is the bar is so high. If you only developed one, everything would rest on that one shot. It’s such a special show. I want to make sure that [any prequel] feels worthy. We have some amazing writers who want to take a shot at this. They’re also looking at different times in the universe and all will have different feels. This increases our odds of finding one that’s unique.
On the Dan and David side of things, they told me that they’re not going to be involved in the prequels and instead are going to work on the final season for the next year and a half. Is that right?
Yep. I’m glad you asked that because that is one thing I want to clarify: By the time the final season airs, Dan and David will have been at this for 12 years. Which is an amazing fact. They didn’t go and do movies in between seasons, they didn’t set anything else up, they put everything — and are putting everything — into this show. They came into HBO with an idea for a show with a beginning, middle, and end, and they want to see it through. In conversations with them, they feel if their name is on the prequels — even in a passive way — it conveys some sort of expectation or responsibility. They want to enjoy the show as fans and don’t want to worry about the scripts or production issues. We were hoping to have their names on it out of respect for them, but we understand why they don’t want that.
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25th May 2017 - Season 8 Confirmed to Be 6 Episodes
We’ve been hearing this for a couple years, but now it’s a done deal: The eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will be six episodes, sources confirm.
Wrapping the hit series at 73 episodes has long the plan of Emmy-winning showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who have known for years precisely how many episodes were ideally left in their intricately constructed HBO fantasy epic based on George R.R. Martin’s novels. The producers are currently writing those final hours while also doing post-production work on the show’s seventh season — which makes its eagerly anticipated return this summer (and will consist of seven episodes).
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