It seems winter is coming a bit later next year. The seventh season of Game of Thrones will release in summer of next year. This means it will premiere later compared to the usual Spring release window. While fans might be upset about this, it has been speculated for some time that it would release in the summer for some time now. Season 7 will have to film in winter (because, ya know, Winter has come).
“Now that winter has arrived on ‘Game of Thrones,’ executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt that the storylines of the next season would be better served by starting production a little later than usual when the weather is changing,” said Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming. “Instead of the show’s traditional spring debut, we’re moving the debut to summer to accommodate the shooting schedule.”
Besides the news that season seven will release in the summer, we now know that it will also be shorter. It was previously speculated that there are only 13 episodes left. Instead of the usual 10 episodes, we are only getting seven. This fits with a previous statement to Deadline from showrunner David Benioff:
“I think we’re down to our final 13 episodes after this season (6th season). We’re heading into the final lap,” said Benioff. “That’s the guess, though nothing is yet set in stone, but that’s what we’re looking at.”
If there are in fact 13 episodes in total left, that means the final season will consist of 6 episodes.
Production is starting later this year in Iceland, Spain, and Northern Ireland. Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World), Jeremy Podeswa (“Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken”), Mark Mylod (“High Sparrow”), and Matt Shakman (Fargo Season 1) are directing Season 7’s episodes.
More information might be given about the future of the show at the Game of Thrones panel later this week at San Diego Comic-Con. Are you sad that the show is slowly but surely coming to an end? Have any predictions as to what will happen? Sound off in the comments below!