HBO's Game of Thrones is currently filming its sixth, totally Jon Snow-less (more on that in a bit) season, and with the Television Critics Association tour taking place questions have arisen about the show's future. HBO chief Michael Lombardo has previously expressed a desire for showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss to take the epic series to ten seasons, while talk of feature films has also popped up from time to time. But now Lombardo has a different number of seasons in mind, saying that the hit show will close up shop after season eight.
“Seven seasons and out has never been the conversation.The question is, ‘How much beyond seven are we going to do?’ Obviously we’re shooting six now, hopefully discussing seven. [Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are] feel like there’s two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds, but that’s what we’re looking at right now.”
Eight seasons is a strong number and would put it as one of HBO's longest-running shows, but surely that wouldn't just be the end of it? When questions were raised about the possibility of prequels or sequels, Lombardo seems more than open to it...
“There’s enormous storytelling to be mined in a prequel if [George R.R. Martin] and Dan and David decide they want to tackle that. At this point, all the focus is on the next few years of the show. We haven’t had any conversations about that at this point.”
Fans of Westeros should relax, though, as he added that there haven't been any formal discussions on extending the franchise in any way. Not yet.
He also addressed rumors that Kit Harington's Jon Snow, who died in last season's finale, will come back at some point. Not so, according to Lombardo...
“Dead is dead is dead. He be dead. Everything I’ve seen, heard and read, [the character in question] is indeed dead.”
Yeah, right. Keep up the charade, HBO. [Deadline]
