‘Game Of Thrones’: HBO Confirms Final Season, Addresses Spin-Off Rumors

All good things must come to an end, and, unfortunately Game of Thrones is no exception. Entertainment Weekly is reporting that HBO has confirmed that Season 8 will be final one for the blockbuster TV show.

Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have stated multiple times that Season 8 seems like the appropriate time to end Game of Thrones given the storyline they have planned, but until now, no one at HBO has stated that they are in agreement with that plan.

Entertainment Weekly recently asked HBO’s new programming president Casey Bloys his thoughts on wrapping up the network’s Game of Thrones show with Season 8, and he responded that is the current plan. Bloys spoke at the Television Critics Association’s press tour in Beverly Hills on Saturday and expressed that, although he’d like to see Game of Thrones go on for much longer, everyone wants to maintain its high quality, and they believe that ending it after Season 8 is the best way to accomplish that.

“Yes, they have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do. Believe me, as the new [programming executive] coming in, if I could get them to do more. I would take 10 more seasons. But we take their lead on what they think they can do the best version of the show.”

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Bloys did not, however, confirm that HBO and Game of Thrones showrunners Benioff and Weiss are in agreement on another matter – the number of episodes in Season 8. He stated that the exact number of episodes in its final season had not yet been determined.

Rumors of a Game of Thrones spin-off have also been circulating for some time now. Again, stressing the importance of maintaining quality programming, Bloys said the idea has been discussed but that it’s too soon to make a decision.

“We’ve talked about it. It’s something I’m not opposed to, but of course it has to make sense creatively. I’m not sure that [Benioff and Weiss] could really wrap their heads around it when they’re just about to start production [on season 7]… The guys weren’t opposed to it, but there’s no concrete plans for it at this point.”

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As reported by ABC, both in the U.S. and internationally, Game of Thrones broke viewing records in Season 6. Nearly nine million people watched the season finale, the show’s largest audience for a single episode.

Game of Thrones received an astounding 23 Emmy nominations this year. This exceeds its record-breaking 12 nominations last year. Among its nominations this year is the Emmy for outstanding drama series, an award for which it has been nominated for five consecutive years.

HBO recently announced that Game of Thrones fans will have to wait longer than usual for Season 7, with it not beginning until June 2017. The delay means more than a long wait for viewers though. It also means that it will not be eligible for Emmy nominations in 2017. Bloys acknowledged this and said the following.

“Even if we took Thrones Emmys away this year, we’d still have more than anyone else.”

He went on to say that taking themselves out of the running for the 2017 Emmy’s is “just something we have to live with.”

Game of Thrones is based on a series of books titled A Song of Ice and Fire that were written by George R.R. Martin. The author has served as co-executive producer and writer of the HBO series. The storyline of the Game of Thrones television series moved beyond the plot of the books with Season 7, making it the first in which readers of the Game of Thrones books don’t know how the television show will unfold.

[Photo courtesy of HBO]