HBO has today announced that the anticipated final season of its hit show Game of Thrones will air April of next year — though no specific release date was confirmed.
The announcement was made via the Game of Thrones Twitter channel, which you can view below:
Every battle.
Every betrayal.
Every risk.
Every fight.
Every sacrifice.
Every death.
All #ForTheThrone. pic.twitter.com/WReVt473SH— Game Of Thrones (@GameOfThrones) November 13, 2018
Details on the final season are few and far between, but what we do know is that it’s scheduled to run just six episodes. That’s four less than usual, so expect a short and sharp conclusion to the saga next April. Mind you, there’s every chance the episodes could be longer.
Speaking in an interview, Liam Cunningham, who plays Ser Davos, said “So we’re [doing] way more than that for six episodes. So that obviously will translate into longer episodes.”
HBO’s Casey Bloys has also gone on record to say: “Two hours per episode seems like it would be excessive, but it’s a great show, so who knows?”
As for the overall theme of season eight, one of the show’s writers, Bryan Cogman, teased the overall theme of the eighth season:
“It’s about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death,” Cogman told EW. “It’s an incredibly emotional, haunting, bittersweet final season and I think it honours very much what [author George R.R. Martin] set out to do – which is flipping this kind of story on its head.”
Although the sixth season will mark the grand finale to one of TV’s most popular shows in recent times, HBO already has plans for a spin-off series. Earlier this year, HBO confirmed a pilot order for an in-development prequel series, which does not yet have a title. Naomi Watts was recently announced as the star.
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