'Game of Thrones' Season 8 News, Update: Final Season Will Have 6 Episodes; Ed Sheeran to Appear in Season 7
The end is near for HBO's hit fantasy series "Game of Thrones," with only two short seasons left before its conclusion. Its seven-episode seventh season is slated to premiere this July, while its eighth season is expected to come out sometime next year and just as many fans feared, it will only be six episodes long.
During a featured speaker panel at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival in Austin, Texas on Sunday, March 12, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss spoke about their plans for the eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones."
"It's only going to be six episodes for the final season," Benioff said, according to Entertainment Weekly. "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."
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"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," he added.
HBO has yet to officially announce the episode count for season 8. However, with the upcoming seventh season now wrapped and the showrunners making preparations for its last season, the showrunners seem sure of the number of hours they'll be putting out for season 8, noting that they've already figured out who gets to write each of the episodes.
The outline for "Game of Thrones" season 8 is 140 pages, with Dave Hill and Bryan Cogman writing the first two episodes. Meanwhile, the remaining episodes will be split between Weiss and Benioff.
Aside from talks about the eighth season, it was also recently revealed that British music artist Ed Sheeran will be appearing in the fantasy series' seventh season. The showrunners explained that the reason they brought the popular musician to appear in the series is to surprise cast member Maisie Williams, who is a huge fan of Sheeran.
"Game of Thrones" returns to HBO with the premiere of its seventh and penultimate season on July 16.
