‘Game of Thrones’ season 3 spoilers: Expect longer episodes

Good news for those of you who are avid “Game of Thrones” fans: for the upcoming third season, executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are going to cram as much as possible into the show’s allotted time. As a matter of fact, it will almost be like getting an eleventh episode this season in between all the additions that are being made.

In talking about this subject, executive producer David Benioff tells Entertainment Weekly that there will be more episodes that come closer to a full 60 minutes this season, as opposed to the 52-minute episodes that were around for most of season 2. In addition to that, fellow EP D.B. Ewiss added the following:

“There’s almost another full episode’s worth of extra minutes spread across the season … One of the great liberties with HBO is we’re not forced to come in at a specific time. We can’t be under 50 minutes or over 60, but that gives us a lot of flexibility.”

The show has already received permission from the network to have its season 10 finale extended to over an hour, though there are no specific details just yet as to how long that will really be. The pilot episode and the season 2 finale are the last opportunities that producers had to make an episode for the show exceed its typical run time.

Season 3 is already finished filming, and is now in the process of being edited and prepared to air on HBO beginning on Sunday, March 31 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. Hopefully, we will have more opportunities to see footage from the show moving forward into the new year.

Are you all for longer episodes, especially when you consider the magnitude of the show being adapted in “A Storm of Swords”? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and you can check out the crazy new marketing move by HBO for the series over at the link here.

Photo: HBO