“Game of Thrones” is rolling. After a successful, though controversial, fifth season, the series garnered the most Emmy nominations of any show this year – a massive 24. At this point, even the smallest rumor of a filming location is big news. With prestige and popularity that keeps climbing it may seem strange to be talking about the end.
But the end is coming whether we or HBO’s head of programming, Michael Lombardo, want it to or not. Speaking at the Television Critics Association’s annual summer press tour, Lombardo weighed in about the future of the network’s flagship series. In the current TV landscape where the showrunners can be as famous as their series, it is no wonder David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will have to be comfortable with any plan that is set in place.
The Wrap pulled a few choice quotes from the TCA event but one stands out: “I think their feeling is we’re looking at two more seasons after six. I’m hoping they’ll change their minds, but that’s what we’re looking at right now.” This makes it seem as if Benioff and Weiss are leaning towards eight seasons, which isn’t that surprising of a plan. Keeping the pace of one season per novel (with the exception of seasons three and four which adapted the third book), eight full seasons of the series would roughly adapt the planned seven Song of Ice and Fire volumes.
Working in uncharted plot territory, the series will have to strike out on its own, but even as George R. R. Martin steps back from working on the show directly to continue work on the unreleased novels, Benioff and Weiss know the basic endgame and can confidently shepherd the story to its conclusion.
If “Game of Thrones” were to end after an eighth season, that doesn’t necessarily mean it would be the last we’d see of Westeros. Lombardo was also asked about a possible prequel (something could potentially be based on the Dunk and Egg novellas) he responded, “I’m open to anything Dan and David would want to do, but no conversations yet.” It’ll be interesting to see if discussions surrounding a possible prequel heat up after an end date for the main series is selected.
Clearly HBO is proud of the show and the network wants to hang on to it for as long as possible. Luckily through, shows like “Lost” and “Breaking Bad” paved the way for showrunners to control their own destiny and go out on their own terms. There’s no reason to expect the creative engine behind “Game of Thrones” to run out of steam but knowing there is an absolute endpoint and it has to be reached in a certain amount of time will ensure the train can run full speed ahead.
