‘Game of Thrones’ season 3 spoilers: How long could the series last?

Game of ThronesWhen it comes to some shows, it seems rather ridiculous to sit around and talk about when they could end when we are only three years in. However, “Game of Thrones” over on HBO is a little bit of a different beast. This is a show that is based off of a book series that has not even finished hitting stores yet, and thus the complication here becomes a number of things: Do they near the end before George R.R. Martin does, or will there been a need in some way to slow things down?

Let’s try (if we can) to look at things somewhat chronologically. The third and fourth seasons are mostly filled with content from A Sword of Swords, the third book in the series, though there are a few things from the fourth and fifth books thrown in there as well. It’s possible to get the rest of books four and five thrown into season 5 if they work hard at it, and thus the show would be able to wrap things up at season 7 if they went one season to match a book the rest of the way.

But will this actually happen? Speaking to the Radio Times recently, producer Frank Doelger made some pretty significant waves when he claimed some of the following about where the series could end up going:

“[The number of series] is being discussed as we speak. The third season was the first half of book three, season four will be the second part of book three. . . George R.R. Martin has written books four and five; six and seven are pending … I would hope that, if we all survive and if the audience stays with us, we’ll probably get through to seven seasons.”

If this show manages to actually tell this full story in seven seasons, someone should craft an iron throne for the producers to sit on. These books are denser than a slice of double-chocolate cheesecake, and it’s going to take a lot of work to cram together 1000-page books into ten episodes. It’s possible, but something will be left on the cutting room floor unless HBO is suddenly okay with extending the episodes further.

Do you have an opinion on this? If you want to preview the road ahead for “Game of Thrones” Sunday night, be sure to check out our preview article over at the link here.

Photo: HBO

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