HBO has revealed that the final season of Game of Thrones, which is scheduled to premiere on April 14, will only be eight minutes shorter than the seventh season’s seven-episode run.
It was earlier this month that HBO launched its official full trailer for the highly anticipated Game of Thrones finale, in which fans were given a glimpse into the epic battles and drama to come.
While fans of the series are eagerly counting hours until the series returns for its final season on April 14, HBO has recently revealed run times for the upcoming season. The six-episode installment will clock in at a total of 432 minutes, only eight minutes shorter than the seventh season’s seven-episode run. Moreover, it has been confirmed that its last season that will start on April 14 will run till May 19, 2019.
Creators of the series, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, have referred to their Game of Thrones vision as a 70-hour film. With the final season runtime now revealed, the final season in the series will be a little over seven hours — shorter than most of the other seasons. The seventh season logged in at approximately 440 minutes and had an additional episode to spare over the final six-episode run.
While there were speculations that the final six episodes of the megahit show would be 90 minutes long each, HBO has now confirmed that only the last four episodes will be longer than the show’s usual runtime. The first two episodes of the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will be slightly shorter than the rest at 54 and 58 minutes, respectively.
However, the third episode will be the longest – an hour and 22 minutes – and episode four will run for an hour and 18 minutes. The final two episodes of the series are both estimated to run for an hour and 20 minutes each.
Former HBO chief Richard Plepler, who stepped down from his role in February, told Variety in an interview that the episodes are closer to “six movies” than television episodes, and that show runners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had exceeded expectations with the final product.
“They knew the bar was high. They’ve exceeded the bar,” said Plepler. “I’ve watched them twice without any CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) and I’m in awe. Everybody is in for an extraordinary treat of storytelling and of magical, magical production.”
We’re looking forward to experiencing (not just watching) how Jon Snow (Kit Harington), Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) and the rest of the characters’ lives in the Seven Kingdoms are wrapped up and we can rest assure that nothing will be predictable.
– With information from The Hollywood Reporter and Variety
