Game of Thrones season 8 premiere date may not be until 2019
How about this for a Game of Thrones season 8 premiere date surprise? Even though season 7 is only seven episodes and is set to air this summer, the final batch of episodes may not be ready until 2019.
So what’s the reason for this? Based on early indications, it may be a combination of script concerns, filming schedules, and making sure all the necessary post-production is done. Speaking on the matter to Entertainment Weekly, HBO’s programming head in Casey Bloys had the following to say on the matter of a potentially-later season 8 premiere:
“[Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. We’ll have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing.”
Bloys also confirmed that Benioff and Weiss will not be involved in the upcoming spin-offs, and at the moment it seems as though they don’t want to be credited for them. Why is that? Bloys commented that this credit conveys a sense of “responsibility,” and they seem intent on focusing on the final season before moving on to other avenues in their career.
Finally, Bloys made it clear, as previously reported here, that out of all the potential spin-offs in development, it’s highly unlikely that they will all eventually come out:
“I want to put the prequels in context. It should go without saying I love having a show with this much intense interest around it. Even the smallest bit of information is a big deal and I appreciate that. But I wanted to make sure fans know this is a really embryonic process. I haven’t even seen outlines. In the press at large, everybody said, ‘there are four spinoffs’ and they assume that means each one is happening and we’re going to have a new Game of Thrones show per quarter. That’s not what’s going on. The idea is not to do four shows. The bar set by [Benioff and Weiss] is so high that my hope is to get one show that lives up to it. Also, this is a long-term plan. Our No. 1 goal is the seventh season this summer and getting the eighth season written and aired.”
Ultimately, a spin-off wouldn’t potentially air until 2019 or 2020, so there is a lot of time to get around to this point.
Game of Thrones season 7 premieres on Sunday, July 16. If you haven’t seen the latest trailer for it for whatever reason, be sure to head over to the link here. (Photo: HBO.)