Game Of Thrones Has 15 Episodes Or Less Left

The showrunners of HBO’s Game of Thrones have confirmed that Seasons 7 and 8 will be shorter [...]

By Jamie Lovett

Game of Thrones - The Winds of Winter

The showrunners of HBO's Game of Thrones have confirmed that Seasons 7 and 8 will be shorter than previous seasons, combining to total 15 episodes or less as the series enters its final act. Rumors to this effect have been circulating for some time, but David Benioff confirmed it in an interview about Sunday's Season 6 finale.

"It's two more seasons we're talking about," Benioff told Deadline."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."

Benioff goes on to say that he and fellow creator, showrunner, and Executive Producer D.B. Weiss have always wanted Game of Thrones to have a definitive ending and not to drag on until ratings could no longer justify its existence.

"We're trying to tell one cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end," Benioff said. "As Dan [D.B. Weiss] 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," he continued. "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."

Other rumors had contended that HBO wanted to extend Game of Thrones, the second biggest show on cable television, for up to 10 seasons if possible. While that doesn't seem to be in the cards, George R.R. Martin's world is certainly rich enough to spawn a prequel or a spin-off series if HBO should choose to go that route.

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