While HBO dropped a stunner on the Television Critics Association summer event by announcing a Deadwood movie for next spring, what people are really dying to hear about is Game of Thrones' final season. With the series having earned HBO tons of money and armloads of awards, we knew it was going to go out with a band. But when would we finally see it? And what would each episode look like? And what's going on with those spinoffs that should expand the franchise?
HBO's Casey Bloys told The Wrap we can expect the final season to air "in the first half of next year", which is both frustratingly vague and also in line with what we've previously heard. Bloys and others also got fans all excited some months ago by claiming each of the final six episodes would be longer, up to two hours in length. Well...not so much. With post-production likely to have begun, Bloys now says none of the episodes will be two hours long...
"Not two hours," he told EW. "Yes, they are not going to be [two hours long]. Not that I've seen, anyway."
Okay, so we aren't getting two-hour long episodes...but at least we have all of those spinoffs to look forward to? Well, not exactly. Turns out only one of the handful remains, and it's the prequel spear-headed by Kick-Ass writer Jane Goldman and author George R.R. Martin himself. Not a surprise since it was the only one greenlit early, while the other four were left in limbo with one being shelved outright. Now they are all shelved except for Goldman's.
"That was the one we’re excited about,” Bloys said. Maybe the others didn't have strong enough concepts to move forward, or perhaps HBO is just biding their time? It's hard to believe they don't want as much Game of Thrones out there as possible.
