Final season of Game of Thrones confirmed as six episodes long

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

After years of providing battles, blood, drama in fancy gardens and gratuitous nudity, the beginning of the end for GAME OF THRONES will commence this July with season seven, which will lead into the final eighth. This upcoming season will have a shortened episode order of only seven episodes, and we now have confirmation that the final season will have even less.

How less, you ask? Well, word out of South by Southwest is that the final season of the fantasy epic will be only six episodes long, down from seven this season which is down from the usual ten. So, the season will virtually be half the length of a normal season, meaning you’d have more time to spend in Italy on a layover than you have left to spend in Westeros. So little time left, but so much blood left to spill.

Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss spoke about the impending finale on Sunday, saying they’ve always wanted the show to end this way by making, in essence, a 70-hour movie:

It’s only going to be six episodes for the final season. From the beginning we’ve wanted to tell a 70-hour movie. It will turn out to be a 73-hour movie, but it’s stayed relatively the same of having the beginning, middle and now we’re coming to the end. It would have been really tough if we lost any core cast members along the way, I’m very happy we’ve kept everyone and we get to finish it the way we want to.

They also spoke about the plans HBO has for a spinoff series:

I think HBO might well do [another series] and I look forward to watching it and I think it’ll be great, but I think they should get new blood in.

This new season of GAME OF THRONES is already starting later than normal, kicking off on July 16 when normally it would be airing around this time of year.  The date was announced last week during a Facebook event, accompanied by some small teasers, revealing that summer was indeed about to get a little…ahem…chilly. That sounded cooler in my head.

I love THRONES and season six had some pretty astounding moments and left on a tremendous note, and I can’t wait to see how things progress in this next season, leading up to the finale next year. They don’t have as much time left, so I’m eagerly waiting to see how they tell a cohesive story in fewer episodes in these last seasons. All I know is those White Walkers HAVE to be getting close to something else by now. That is, unless, the twist is they've been walking in the wrong direction.

Catch the new season on July 16.