Today during their panel at the Television Critics Association, HBO confirmed that Game of Thrones will end with season 8.
HBO President Casey Bloys also said that they’ve yet to determine how many episodes the final season will hold, but they’ll “take as many as we can get.”
And HBO’s new president wishes the show would go on longer. “If I could get them to do more I would take 10 seasons,” he added, “but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is.”
Unfortunately, HBO’s wish for more seasons beyond eight won’t be granted. The news comes a few weeks after we learned that season 7 will be seven episodes, as opposed to the usual 10. The final season is expected to be just as short if not slightly shorter — as of late June, the plan was for six episodes in season 8.
Even if HBO can’t convince Game of Thrones’ showrunners to take the show beyond an eighth season, it sounds like they’re hoping to do a spinoff. “We’ve talked about it,” Bloys said. “It’s not something I’m opposed to but it has to make sense creatively. I’m not sure the guys can wrap their heads around it when they are about to start production. We’re open to it; the guys aren’t opposed to it but there’s no concrete plans right now.”
If HBO, and Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, did decide to move forward with a spinoff series, they likely wouldn’t be working blind — George R. R. Martin is writing an ongoing series of novellas set in the universe, centered around the characters ‘Dunk’ and ‘Egg.’ With three novellas written so far — The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight — and as many as 12 planned, they’d certainly have enough material at their disposal.