Good news! Or terrible news. Now that we know Game of Thrones has officially been renewed for Season 7, talk inevitably turns to the number of episodes and seasons left, last estimated by showrunners around 13 hours beyond Season 6. Well, we might end up with a higher number than that, by their own admission, or simply call it quits with Season 7 altogether.

Take this all with grain of salt for the moment, as showrunners Dan Weiss and David Benioff have yet to firm up exact plans for the seventh season of Game of Thrones (or beyond), the most recent report suggesting Season 7 could comprise seven episodes, leaving a final six for Season 8. Now, in looking ahead to the finish line, the two tell The Hollywood Reporter that the number could end up anywhere between 10 or 15 episodes beyond Season 6:

We realized we’d probably catch the books when we spent several days with George in Santa Fe in 2013, discussing the future of the book series and the television series. George’s schedule is very much his own, as it should be for a novelist. But we’re locked into a set schedule – a new season every year. In the beginning, we hoped that if the show worked, we’d get seven seasons to tell the tale. Seven kingdoms, seven gods, seven books – seven felt like a lucky number. The actual messiness of storytelling might not be quite that numerologically elegant, but we’re looking at somewhere between 70 and 75 hours before the credits roll for the last time.

Were the number to remain as low as 70, or a full season’s length beyond Season 6, there’s no guarantee that HBO would divide the 10 episodes into a solitary season. After all, Benioff and Weiss’s increased difficulty producing 10 episodes in the usual 12-14 month timeline brought us here in the first place, Weiss telling Variety “It’s crossing out of a television schedule into more of a mid-range movie schedule.”

Certainly, fans would be happier with a final 15 episodes, seven or eight apiece, though it stands to reason HBO would only confirm one vague Season 7 renewal to leave some wiggle room. We’ll see how the story begins its descent with Sunday’s Season 6 premiere, but how should producers ultimately wrap the tale?

 

 

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