The hugely popular fantasy show Game of Thrones will officially finish after season eight, HBO's programming president has confirmed. According to reports, the final two seasons will also be shorter than the usual 10 episodes, with season seven having seven episodes, and eight wrapping the story of the Starks, Lannisters and Targaryens up for good with just six.
HBO's programming president Casey Bloys told Entertainment Weekly that although he would prefer to keep the show going, the showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have decided to finish telling the story earlier. He said: "Yes, they have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do.
The show will officially end after its eighth season
"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."
However, Casey did hint that there could be a spinoff show in the works, telling EW that Dan and David "weren't opposed" to the idea. He continued: "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.
"I'm open to it. The guys weren’t opposed to it, but there's no concrete plans for it at this point."
There may be a spin off show in the future
However, fans still have the final two books in the George RR Martin's series to look forward to, although the seventh book in the series, Winds of Winter, has still yet to given a publishing date despite the TV show taking over the books.
In an open letter posted on his blog, the fantasy author apologised for the long wait between books, writing: "The book's not done. Nor is it likely to be finished tomorrow, or next week. Yes, there's a lot written. Hundreds of pages. Dozens of chapters…But there's also a lot still left to write. I am months away still... and that's if the writing goes well."