14 DAY TRIAL // At yesterday’s Television Critics Association’s press tour, HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo addressed an older rumor that had been making the rounds online according to which “Game of Thrones” would end after the 7th season.
With season 6 currently in production and scheduled for a 2016 release, this would have meant that one of the most elaborate, successful and bloody TV series of all time would have come to an end in 2017. This will probably not be the case, Entertainment Weekly reports.
“Game of Thrones” will get at least another season after 7
Speaking with the media, Lombardo claims to not know where the rumor that GoT would only get 7 seasons came from. Even though it came from comments made by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, Lombardo is now saying that they believe they have material for at least another season after the 7th.
“The question is: How much beyond seven are we going to do?” Lombardo asks. “Obviously we’re shooting six now, hopefully discussing seven. [Benioff and Weiss] 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.”
If this is a plan and HBO sticks to it, that means that fans won’t have to say goodbye to their favorite characters (or what’s left of them, at the rate things are going) until 2018, when an 8th season would air.
Chances of HBO speeding up the production on the series to release 2 seasons a year are slim to none: as it is, production is packed, with several crews shooting simultaneously in several locations, on a budget that is comparable to one for a big studio film.
Nonetheless, even if they have to wait until 2018 to find out who wins at this “game of thrones,” fans should find comfort in the thought that their favorite series isn’t going away anytime soon.
What about Jon Snow? [Spoilers]
Now would be a good time to stop reading if you’re not caught up yet with the events on the season 5 finale, because *major spoilers* are coming your way.
Fans who’ve seen the episode “Mother’s Mercy,” which ended season 5, know that Jon Snow was, by the looks of it, killed by his own brothers on The Wall, as punishment for aiding the wildlings.
There has been a lot of speculation on that since the air date, especially after Kit Harington, the actor playing Snow, was spotted on the set in Belfast, which stands for The Wall on camera.
According to Lombardo, “dead is dead is dead.” He hasn’t seen or heard anything about Jon Snow somehow surviving being stabbed several times, or of him being brought back to life by Melisandre and the Lord of Light.
Jon Snow is dead and not coming back, Lombardo stresses.