Bad news for Game of Thrones fans – the showrunners have confirmed there are just 13 episodes left of the hit fantasy series.
“We want to leave while all the people watching this show are really into it. Get out at a high point and not have it be, ‘well thank God that’s over,’” DB Weiss told Deadline.
David Benioff added that they have planned two more seasons, but they look set to be notably shorter than in the past.
While fans are used to 10-episode seasons, the remaining seasons may have just six or seven episodes each.
“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,” he said.
He added that the pair have known the ending of the series for some time, and had long decided a beginning, middle and an end for the show.
Sophie Turner as Sansa in Game of Thrones
“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,” he said.
“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 showrunners explained that they didn’t want to be forced to figure out new story lines each season.
“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 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.”
Game of Thrones is expected to return to Sky Atlantic in spring 2017
Irish Independent