Game of Thrones season 8: HBO boss pours on hype for final ‘spectacle’

Here’s some news that shouldn’t shock anyone: HBO’s CEO is super proud of the final season of Game of Thrones. Why wouldn’t he be? It’s one of those things that of course he is going to want to hype up, but we still feel that it’s genuine. This is a generational hit for the network, one that they probably won’t be able to replicate for many years. They’ve never had any show like it before.

For HBO, the goal here has to be this: Finding a way to get more subscribers later this year once the show is over. They only have six episodes left and with that, they have to get as many subscribers out of this while the iron’s hot! That’s why we expect more hype and higher expectations over the next few months leading up to the show’s premiere in April. We’ve already gotten our first look at the final season, at least in the form of a short sneak peek featuring Sansa and Daenerys on-screen together for the same time.

Speaking to Variety at a Golden Globes after-party, here is what the aforementioned Richard Plepler had to say:

“[Everybody’s] in for an extraordinary treat of storytelling and of magical, magical production. It’s a spectacle. The guys have done six movies. The reaction I had while watching them was, ‘I’m watching a movie … [Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss] knew the bar was high. They’ve exceeded the bar. I’ve watched them twice without any CGI and I’m in awe.”

One question that we do wonder is this: Why would Plepler want to watch these twice without CGI? We get it once, but still…

Anyhow, clearly Plepler thinks that these episodes are magical (to use his words), but will they be worth the seven seasons of buildup? That probably depends on who you ask once the dust settles. There is no harder task for a showrunner than trying to plot out a series finale, largely because every person under the sun as an idea as to what a great end to a show should be. We feel like the enjoyment of the final season will be predicated significantly on how much people are going to be able to separate the actual ending from whatever they’ve imagined it to be in their mind over the years. Benioff and Weiss are not clairvoyant, and nor can they find a way to cater the end of their show to every single viewer. There will likely be a bittersweet sentiment to those final moments; there’s always a chance that the White Walkers are defeated and we still don’t get a satisfactory person on the Iron Throne. This is not necessarily meant to be a series with a happy ending. It’s more about the journey.

What expectations do you have regarding the end of Game of Thrones? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments. (Photo: HBO.)