Start your GAME OF THRONES countdown clocks now that winter has finally arrived. There are two more seasons left before the entirety of the story has been told and the series comes to an end. That much was confirmed in a recent interview Deadline secured with GAME OF THRONES co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Two shortened seasons has been what Benioff and Weiss have been talking about for a little while in recent history, and it would appear after Season Six's finale that they have all the pieces where they want them to be in order to execute a breakneck race towards the finish line.
It’s two more seasons we’re talking about. 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. What Dan says is really true, but it’s not just trying not to outstay your welcome. We’re trying to tell one cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end. As Dan said, 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. The thing that has excited us from the beginning, back to the way we pitched it to HBO is, 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 10 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. We’re definitely heading into the end game now.
I know we don't want this show to end. When you have something this good as part of your regular routine, you don't want it to go. But much like we said goodbye to BREAKING BAD and MAD MEN and plenty of other incredible shows on our televisions that came before GAME OF THRONES, there will be something else. Something else will step up and capture our attention and our imaginations and will demand that we must watch it religiously as we have this particular series. That doesn't mean we can't look back and miss it or long to revisit it on-demand or via our home collection. We certainly will. However, all things must come to an end… and GAME OF THRONES is heading towards that exit.