‘Game of Thrones’ season 4 finale: Will the episode be extended?

One of the most frustrating things routinely about the finale of “Game of Thrones” is that the show only gives you ten episodes a season. We know that thanks to production, it is hard to really do more than that while still meeting your budget limit and how much you are able to do across multiple locations.

Luckily, the show has gotten pretty good over the years with giving you a little bit more good stuff in just about every finale, and that tradition looks to be continuing. TV Guide has listed next week’s finale “The Children” as running for an hour and fifteen minutes, which probably means that the episode itself is in the 65-70 minute range, which puts it on par with last season’s finale.

We certainly understand right now why this episode would need that much time when you stop and think about it for a minute. Given the talk that tonight’s “The Watchers on the Wall” is going to be set entirely at the battle there, that means that the stories in Meereen, King’s Landing, the Veil, and Dragonstone are going to be completely ignored for the time being. They will have to give us something more on all of those to prepare for the future.

We do hope that there is something that breaks this episode off a little bit from the norm, though, given that typically the show does not have the most spectacular finales. Instead, most of the big stuff happens in episode 9 and the last episode is meant more to carry into what will happen the next season. For once, we’d be down for seeing something a little more epic there that leaves you gasping until the next premiere.

Excited for a longer episode next week? Share your thoughts on that and so much more below, and you can also head over here to score more TV updates from our official newsletter.

Photo: HBO