'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Release Date, News: HBO Confirms Series' Return in 2019
"Game of Thrones" fans have both been looking forward to and dreading this announcement for some time now. HBO has just confirmed that the highly anticipated series will be taking a year off, and will instead return with season 8 in 2019.
The award-winning series is not due to return this year, as HBO confirmed in its own website. Along the way, the network also confirms what many have known long before this announcement, that season 8 of "Game of Thrones" will be its final season, and a short one at that, with only six episodes to wrap everything up.
It was an announcement that confirmed earlier rumors that HBO and "Game of Thrones" is taking a year off, as Entertainment Weekly accurately called on as early as June last year.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
HBO programming president Casey Bloys hinted in early 2017 that the last season of "Game of Thrones" might, in fact, be one year in the making. When asked if the showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were going to work on season 8 for a year and a half, Bloys all but confirmed that schedule.
"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," Bloys said back then.
"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," he added.
This delay also buys some time, conveniently enough, for author George R. R. Martin to possibly make some progress on his next "A Song of Ice and Fire" book. "The Winds of Winter," which could be the second to the last volume in the series, could come out in 2018, according to Entertainment Weekly.
