GAME OF THRONES Showrunners Considering Shorter Episode Count For The Final Two Seasons

Big news for the Game of Thrones-obsessed among you. Variety reports that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are considering wrapping up the series with only 13 more episodes across its two (potentially) final seasons: seven episodes for season seven, and six episodes for season eight.

“I think we’re down to our final 13 episodes after this season. We’re heading into the final lap,” said Benioff. “That’s the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but that’s what we’re looking at.”

But different sources told the site that "those exact numbers were premature," because the scripts aren't finished: they are still in the outline phase of the story for the final two seasons. Though HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo said they're still in conversations about exactly how many episodes the rest of the series will entail, it seems like a really good bet that we won't see 10 episodes per season anymore after season six wraps up this year. I'm glad to hear that they don't want to stretch the show just to meet an episode quota for each season. Benioff and Weiss have had tremendous success so far in large part because they've mostly been allowed to tell George R.R. Martin's story at their own pace, and I'd hate to see Game of Thrones cheapen its legacy by dragging things out when they're so close to the finish line.

It sounds like they're taking a lesson from the Breaking Bad playbook, which will allow them to concentrate more on the individual episodes as they come to an end — something Weiss says they need, considering how "It’s crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule."

The sixth season of Game of Thrones premieres on HBO on April 24th.

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