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Staff | Aug 07, 2016

It’s Official: HBO Confirms ‘Game Of Thrones’ Will End After Eight Seasons

After a few months of speculation, HBO has confirmed it: Season 8 of Game of Thrones will be the series’ final season.

Casey Bloys, HBO’s new programming president, confirmed it Saturday at the Television Critics Association summer tour to members of the press. Speaking with the press, Bloys revealed it has been the plan for a while:

“Yes, I think [the showrunners, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff] have a very specific plan about the number of seasons they want to do. If I could get them to do more, I would take 10 seasons but we want to take their lead with what they could do and what the best version of the show is.”

However, Bloys left the door open about the possibility of a potential spinoff when the question was raised:

“We’ve talked about it. 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.”

It’s impossible to think that HBO wouldn’t be giving serious thought to a spinoff. While the company has always been committed to quality stories, it’s previously shown a willingness to continue on with a popular property after its initial end, such as giving the green light to a second season of True Detective, a decision that was met with mixed results. But Game of Thrones is a different beast. Not the initially one-off season of True Detective, Thrones has been HBO’s longest-running and most successful series ever. Season 6 drew an average of 25 million viewers per episode, and, rather than wane as many shows do as they draw nearer to a close, Game of Thrones‘ ratings have only increased every year. After last season’s finale set a series record of 8.1 million live plus same day viewers, the finale of Season 6 shattered even that number at 8.9 million viewers. [Source]