“Game of Thrones” final season may not arrive until 2019

PanARMENIAN.Net - If you think the longer gap between the sixth and seventh seasons of "Game of Thrones" is torturing, then you must prepare for this worse possibility. HBO programming chief Casey Bloys hints that the eighth and final season of its hit series might not arrive until 2019, AceShowbiz reveals.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bloys confirms that showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss will be working on the final season for a year and a half, which makes it impossible for them to be involved in any spin-off series. "Yep," Bloys says, "...that is one thing I want to clarify: By the time the final season airs, Dan and David will have been at this for 12 years. Which is an amazing fact."

Asked again if this means the final season could air in 2018 and/or in 2019 depending on how long the showrunners take to write the episodes, Bloys replies, "Yeah. They have to write the episodes and figure out the production schedule. We'll have a better sense of that once they get further into the writing."

Bloys additionally notes that they won't rush the spin-offs. "I want to put the prequels in context," he says. "In the press at large, everybody said, 'there are four spin-offs' and they assume that means each one is happening and we're going to have a new 'Game of Thrones' show per quarter. That's not what's going on. The idea is not to do four shows. The bar set by [Benioff and Weiss] is so high that my hope is to get one show that lives up to it. Also, this is a long-term plan. Our No. 1 goal is the seventh season this summer and getting the eighth season written and aired."

Asked about speculation that one or more of the prequels might be a limited series instead of a regular series, he responds, "At this point, everything is on the table. The idea is to find a series. It would be nice to find something that has the legs this one did. But if something works better as a limited series, sure."

"Game of Thrones" season 7 is set to premiere July 16. While HBO has mainly kept the details under wraps, spoilers keep hitting the web. The latest ones reveal two scenes in the first two episodes of the season.

According to The Toronto Sun, in one scene, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen), Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan), Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma), Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel) and Lady Olenna Tyrell (Diana Rigg) gather aroud a table at Dragonstone, arguing about the best way to pry King's Landing from Cersei's (Lena Headey) grip.

In another scene set in Winterfell, Jon Snow (Kit Harington) tells his counselors, "Dragonglass kills White Walkers, and it's now more valuable than gold," which indicates that Jon will keep himself busy fighting against the White Walkers rather than trying to seize the Iron Throne.

The site also reports that during the set visit, a whopping 40 dragon skulls were used for an action scene. The interesting tidbit is that this scene might take place in the cellars beneath the Red Keep, hinting that Cersei's enemy may infiltrate her basement.