GAME OF THRONES Might End Up With Even Fewer Episodes Than We Thought

First up, in case you hadn't already heard, HBO has officially renewed Game of Thrones, Silicon Valley, and Veep for new seasons that will air in 2017. That's obviously good news if you're a fan of those shows, so raise a glass to celebrate another year of (hopefully) quality television.

Now, on to the matter at hand. About a week ago, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said they guessed they had about thirteen more episodes to go after season six before the series came to an end. Now, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, they're saying that number may have changed:

"We realized we'd probably catch the books when we spent several days with George [R.R. Martin] in Santa Fe in 2013, discussing the future of the book series and the television series. George's schedule is very much his own, as it should be for a novelist. But we're locked into a set schedule — a new season every year. In the beginning, we hoped that if the show worked, we'd get seven seasons to tell the tale. Seven kingdoms, seven gods, seven books — seven felt like a lucky number. The actual messiness of storytelling might not be quite that numerologically elegant, but we're looking at somewhere between 70 and 75 hours before the credits roll for the last time."

As of now, the show has officially been greenlit for season seven, but there were rumors that HBO would want to split the remaining episodes into two shortened seasons. If the showrunners end up going with only 70 episodes for the series, that means there are only going to be ten more episodes after the season six finale, which HBO could either air as a regular seventh season or split however it wants. Two seasons of five and five seems possible, and since the show is becoming increasingly ambitious to shoot, that seems like it might give them more time to bring the show to a close in a way that will please everyone.

There are still a lot of possibilities floating around, but they're "writing the final act now," so one would assume we'll soon hear more details from HBO about how the massively successful show will come to an end.