‘Game of Thrones’ season 6: HBO boss on Kit Harington’s status, likely eighth season

It has been a foregone conclusion that “Game of Thrones” will be running until at least a seventh season. HBO has already prepared for this contractually, and there are set to be seven books planned in the George R.R. Martin book series.

What we learned to day at the network’s Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour was a little more surprising: The network is wanting the series to make it to the end of season 8! President Michael Lombardo makes it clear that while most of the media has fixated on season 7 being the end, that has never been the case behind the scenes:

“Seven-seasons-and-out has never been the conversation [on our end] … The question is how much beyond seven are we going to do. [Executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss are] feel like there’s two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds. That’s what we’re looking at right now.”

If HBO has it their way, we imagine that “Game of Thrones” would probably run for 12 years and they can build a replica of the Iron Throne made out of pure gold for every executive that they have. (This is, of course, a joke.) We feel like eight is enough, especially for this show. Thirty episodes is enough time to wrap up two more books from Martin, and whatever stray content from the past seasons that the show has not touched on.

For those wondering, Lombardo also made it clear that Jon Snow is “dead,” and we believe him. The difference here is that we think that there is still a chance that he can be revived, even if it is not for the sixth season. We’re holding out hope here.

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