‘Game Of Thrones’ To Get At Least 8 Seasons On HBO

Game of Thrones, HBO’s hit medieval fantasy series, will likely have a minimum of eight seasons on the premium network.

Game Of Thrones 8 Seasons

It had long been speculated that Game of Thrones, the TV adaptation of George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, would have a total of seven seasons, as Martin has said that he plans to pen seven novels. However, HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo recently revealed that the show will probably wrap up in no less than eight seasons.

“‘Seven seasons and out’ has never been the conversation,” Lombardo said at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills Thursday, reported the Los Angeles Times. “The question is how much beyond seven are we going to do. [Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss] feel like there’s two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds.”

Previously, Benioff and Weiss stated rather adamantly that they wanted to complete Game of Thrones in seven seasons.

“I would say it’s the goal we’ve had from the beginning. It was our unstated goal, because to start on a show and say your goal is seven seasons is the height of lunacy,” Benioff told Entertainment Weekly. “Once we got to the point where we felt like we’re going to be able to tell this tale to its conclusion, that became [an even clearer] goal. Seven gods, seven kingdoms, seven seasons. It feels right to us.”

In addition to the eight planned seasons of Game of Thrones, Lombardo suggested that he wouldn’t be opposed to airing a prequel to the series if Benioff and Weiss were interested.

“I would be open to anything Dan and David want to do,” he said at TCA. “It really would depend fully on what they want to do…. There’s enormous storytelling to be mined in a prequel. We haven’t had any conversations.”

Game of Thrones wrapped up its fifth season earlier this year. Its sixth season will premiere on HBO sometime next year.